My laboratory studies cardiac and skeletal muscle biology underlying physiological function and pathophysiological dysfunction. We focus on mechanical and biochemical mechanisms that enable the myosin motor protein network to coordinate contractility over the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels, thereby powering blood flow and locomotion. My background in physics, bioengineering, computational biology, and biomechanics all come together to tackle difficult and interesting questions about normal and diseased muscle function from a multi-disciplinary perspective. I love mentoring and training students who are interested in multi-scale and multi-disciplinary research studies to understand how biological systems work. Muscles have an amazing variety of functions, and I’m hopeful that defining how different components of the system operate as a whole will ultimately guide innovative approaches to ameliorate dysfunctional contraction with disease.
Affiliate and Adjunct Appointments
- Affiliate, School of Molecular Biosciences
- Adjunct, Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering
- Adjunct, Center for Reproductive Biology
Education
- Post-doc, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, University of Vermont
- PhD, Bioengineering, University of Washington, 2007
- BS, Physics, University of Utah, 2001
Research Interest
- Cardiac muscle physiology
- Skeletal muscle physiology
- Heart disease
- Neuro-muscular disease
- Computational biology