# Study of Muscle, Mobility and Aging: SOMMA2

> **NIH NIH R01** · CALIFORNIA PACIFIC MED CTR RES INSTITUTE · 2024 · $12,573,238

## Abstract

The Study of Muscle Mobility and Aging (SOMMA) is a cohort uniquely designed to identify fundamental age-
related pathways contributing to outcomes that are important to older people. SOMMA2 extends SOMMA1,
which tests the paradigm that properties of muscle, including muscle mitochondrial energetics, predict the
onset of objective mobility disability. SOMMA1 established a rich repository of muscle tissue, blood, and
phenotyping, to expand research to other pathways and clinical endpoints. SOMMA2 adds 650 new
participants to increase its diversity and provide sufficient power to test whether biological pathways predict our
composite outcome of ADL disability, dementia, or death. SOMMA2 will also gather unprecedented
longitudinal data with repeat muscle biopsies to identify changes in biological pathways in muscle tissue that
are associated with age-related changes in muscle power and cardiopulmonary fitness (VO2 peak). SOMMA2
will evaluate essential and interrelated biological pathways of aging: 1. Mitochondrial energetics in muscle and
blood. 2. Somatic DNA damage and insufficient repair, DNA mutations and clonal hematopoiesis. 3. Increasing
oxidative stress and modification 4. Cell senescence and inflammatory senescence associated secretory
phenotype. SOMMA2 will also use longitudinal transcriptomics in muscle to discover biological pathways that
influence change in power and fitness. SOMMA2 will also employ single nucleus snRNA seq to reveal how
different muscle-resident cell types, and how differential gene expression across cell types, with contribute to
muscle power and fitness. SOMMA has already been very productive and has become a major resource for
investigators, particularly young scientists to provide career development opportunities. The data and
specimens from SOMMA2 will be a unique resource fueling translational research for decades to come.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10989229
- **Project number:** 2R01AG059416-06A1
- **Recipient organization:** CALIFORNIA PACIFIC MED CTR RES INSTITUTE
- **Principal Investigator:** STEVEN RON CUMMINGS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $12,573,238
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2018-06-15 → 2029-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10989229

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10989229, Study of Muscle, Mobility and Aging: SOMMA2 (2R01AG059416-06A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10989229. Licensed CC0.

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