Muscle research earns American Physiological Society Accolade

Released: 08.01.18

Plymouth Marjon University Associate Professor Dr Christina Karatzaferi was recently distinguished for writing one of the best recently published articles in physiological research by the American Physiological Society. Dr Karatzaferi and her University of Kent co-authors (N. Adamek and M. A. Geeves) were noted for an original article accepted in the American Journal of Physiology. This research deals with how fatigue affects how well our muscles work.

Muscle fatigue contributes to a range of problems, from sporting underperformance to elderly falls. Sharing of the research by this prestigious publication showcases the high level of expertise of researchers at Plymouth Marjon University.

Dr Karatzaferi is the Director of the Experimental Myology and Integrative Physiology Research Cluster, and she recently celebrated twenty years of muscle research.  She coordinates a 1.45 euro consortium grant from the EU Horizon 2020 RISE programme ‘Muscle Stress Relief’ (www.musclestressrelief.eu) to investigate interaction between muscles and systemic diseases, working with academics and innovators from over 14 other institutions from Europe, the USA and South Africa.

Why is this research important?

Muscle dysfunction has become an issue of growing social, economic and medical importance. Many medical or lifestyle conditions lead to a progressive loss of muscle strength. In the future, these conditions are predicted to gravely impact on life quality of millions of people. Christina aims to not only reveal basic mechanisms behind muscle dysfunction but to also inform new therapies and interventions to help preserve or improve skeletal muscle functions.