# Investigating the Mobile Fraction of Basement Membranes

> **NIH NIH R21** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $174,350

## Abstract

Project Summary
Basement membranes are strong thin sheets of extracellular matrix, and they are found throughout the
human body: under epithelia, surrounding muscles and nerves and organs, and separating tissues. Their
structure and function are critical for many aspects of human health, including mechanical support of
tissues and muscles, embryonic morphogenesis, filtration of the blood in the kidney, blood-brain barrier
function, resisting tumor metastasis, and wound healing. The most prevalent protein in basement
membranes is collagen IV, which is crosslinked into a covalently-bound polymer network and gives the
basement membrane its mechanical strength. Basement membranes and Collagen IV are highly conserved
throughout the animal kingdom. Using Drosophila as a model, we recently found that there appear to be
two fractions of collagen IV, a core fraction that appears stable and a mobile fraction that is more
dynamic. In this R21 project, we will investigate the significance of these two fractions for the structure
and function of basement membranes and begin to unravel the mechanisms governing their different
stabilities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10992733
- **Project number:** 1R21AR084181-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Andrea Page-McCaw
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $174,350
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-06-21 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10992733

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10992733, Investigating the Mobile Fraction of Basement Membranes (1R21AR084181-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10992733. Licensed CC0.

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