UK Undergraduate Student Spotlight: Sarah Sivinski

Sivinski studied muscle metabolism of horses at various stages of life and at different feeding stages.
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Undergraduate students have the opportunity to pursue research projects at the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Sarah Sivinski, an undergraduate in Equine Science and Management with a minor in Biology, is taking full advantage of this opportunity.

Sivinski is in the honors program and is required to complete an individual research project. During her sophomore year, she joined the Research in Equine and Agricultural Disciplines (R.E.A.D.) club, which connected her to Kristine Urschel, PhD, assistant professor of equine science.

Through Urschel, Sivinski began her own research project looking at muscle metabolism of horses at various stages of life (yearlings, 2-year-olds, and mature horses 20 years and older) and at different feeding stages. She worked with Sara Mastellar, PhD, instructor at South Dakota State University, to look at AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), which inhibits protein synthesis by indirectly inhibiting the mTOR protein pathway as well as activating protein degradation.

The study found that AMPK was not higher in fasted or more mature horses that do not require as much muscle accretion as young horses. The results were not significant but could indicate that there are more vital molecules to muscle metabolism or that the study could be repeated with different time parameters

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