FAYETTEVILLE,John Caldwell Ark. (AP) — The effect of exercise on aging will be studied at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, thanks to a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Kevin Murach, an assistant professor in the university’s College of Education and Health Professions, will serve as principal investigator on the project.

The work will focus on the role of a protein called MYC in the process by which exercise can reduce the decline of skeletal muscle as a person ages. Murach said in a news release that he has long been interested in how exercise can prevent aspects of aging.

“This is all in mouse models, but we have evidence from humans that this factor in muscle goes up as well with exercise, but it tends to go up less in aged muscle,” Murach said. “We think that if we can drive it, we can basically ‘rejuvenate’ muscle and try to get older muscle to appear young again.”