Investigators – UW Center for Translational Muscle Research

Lindsey Anderson, PhD

Gerentology & Geriatric medicine, VA Hospital

Dr. Anderson received her PhD in Biokinesiology from the University of Southern California in 2015, completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Jose Garcia at the VA Puget Sound and University of Washington in 2020, and is currently an Acting Assistant Professor in the Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. She conducts clinical research in the field of cancer cachexia with a focus on the relationship between muscle mass and function with patient-reported outcomes. She is the PI of a VA Career Development Award aimed at testing the efficacy of muscle stimulation for preservation of physical function during stem cell transplant and is the Co-Director of the VA Puget Sound Summer Research Program.

Michael J. Bamshad, MD

Pediatrics-Genetic Medicine

David Beck, PhD

Chemical Engineering

Niclas E. Bengtsson, PhD

Neurology

Mary Beth Brown, PT, PhD

Rehabilitation Medicine

Matthew D. Campbell, PhD

Radiology

Jeffrey S. Chamberlain, PhD

Neurology

Joel Chamberlain, PhD

Medical Genetics

Matthew Childers, PhD

Bioengineering

Valerie Daggett, PhD

Bioengineering

Tom Daniel, PhD

President & CEO WRF

Jennifer Davis, PhD

Laboratory Medicine & Pathology

Juan Carlos del Álamo, PhD

Mechanical Engineering

David R. Eyre, PhD

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Stanley C. Froehner, PhD

Physiology & Biophysics

Jose M. Garcia, MD, PhD

Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center (GRECC)

Edith M. Gardiner, PhD

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Luis F. Gonzalez-Cuyar, MD

Laboratory Medicine & Pathology

G. A. Nagana Gowda, PhD

Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine

Ted S. Gross, PhD

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Stephen Hauschka, PhD

Biochemistry

Our group studies the transcriptional regulation of skeletal & cardiac muscle genes by identifying their enhancers, promoters, DNA control elements, and transcription factors. This basic information is then used for designing miniaturized Muscle-Specific Expression Cassettes (MSECs) for gene therapy treatments of Neuromuscular & Cardiac muscle diseases. MSECs are optimized via the design and testing of transcription factor DNA binding site arrays capable of synthesizing muscle type-specific therapeutic product levels that are maximally beneficial for treating each disease.

Princess Imoukhuede, PhD

Bioengineering

Thomas Irving, PhD

Director Biophysics Collaborative Access Team (BioCAT)

Professor of Biology and Physics

BiCAT, CSRRI and DEpt of Biology Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616

Professor Irving was trained at the University of Guelph, Ontario Canada receiving B.Sc. (1978), M.Sc.(1984) and Ph.D. (1989) degrees all in biophysics. After a short post-doc in the Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Texa, Austin he spent 3 years as a beamline scientist at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) at Cornell University, Ithaca NY. He then joined the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1994 to become part of the leadership team for the Biophysics Collaborative Team (BioCAT), a NIH supported national research resource located at the Advanced Photon SOurce, Argonne National Laboratory for the study of non-crystalline biological systems with small angle X-ray scattering and diffraction techniques. He has become one of the world’s leading experts in applying synchrotron radiation the study of fibrous biological systems, most notably muscle with research interests focused on understanding regulatory mechanisms in skeletal and cardiac muscle. He is currently a full professor in the DEpt of Biology with a joint appointment in Physics. He has been the Director of the BioCAT facility since 1991.

Jeffrey Jarvik, MD, MPH

Radiology

Suman Jayadev, MD

Neurology

Elaheh Karbassi, PhD

Laboratory Medicine & Pathology

Haiming Liu Kerr, PhD

Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine

Ronald Y. Kwon, PhD

Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine

Bone and muscle mass are strongly coupled, as evidenced by the fact that osteoporosis and sarcopenia frequently occur in the same individual, a condition termed osteosarcopenia. With support from the CTMR, our lab is determining the biological mechanisms underlying genetic risk for osteosarcopenia in order to develop new approaches for its diagnosis and treatment.

Donghoon Lee, PhD

Radiology

Shiri Levy, PhD

Biochemistry

Qinghang (Chris) Liu, PhD

Physiology & Biophysics

Weikang Ma, PhD

Beamline Scientist at Biophysics Collaborative Team (BioCAT)

Faculty at Center for Synchrotron Radiation Research and Instrumentation (CSRRI)

Research Assistant Professor at Department of Biology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616

Weikang Ma obtained his B.Sc. (2011) in biotechnology from Dalian Medical University, China. He received his PhD in Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics from Illinois Institute of Technology in 2016. After one year post-doc in BioCAT, located at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, he was promoted to Beamline scientist at BioCAT in 2017. He was promoted to Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology, Illinois Institute of Technology in 2019. He has been leading the muscle X-ray diffraction program at BioCAT since 2016, which resulted in more than 40 publications,16 of them in journals with impact factors > 10. BioCAT is a hub that attracts researchers with very different backgrounds and unique approaches to their specific scientific projects. Dr. Ma’s collaborative work ranges from structural and functional studies on invertebrate skeletal muscle (insects and tarantula) to transgenic animal models (mouse, rat, and porcine) for human diseases and to human biopsies samples from patients and healthy donors. （for more information, please visit: https://www.iit.edu/directory/people/weikang-ma）

David L. Mack, PhD

Rehabilitation Medicine

David J. Marcinek, PhD

Radiology

Silvia Marchianò, PhD, PharmD

Laboratory Medicine & Pathology

Julie Mathieu, PhD

Comparative Medicine

Lisa Maves, PhD

Seattle Children’s

Dr. Maves is a Principal Investigator in the Center for Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine at Seattle Children’s Research Institute and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Maves received her PhD from the University of Washington and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Oregon and at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. She joined Seattle Children’s Research Institute in 2012. The Maves lab investigates skeletal muscle and heart development and uses zebrafish models to understand the mechanisms of muscular dystrophy and heart disorders.

Farid Moussavi-Harami, MD

Cardiology

We use molecular, biomechanical and computational approaches to study pathogenesis of acquired and genetic muscle disorders. We are interested in precision medicine and novel sarcomeric-based therapies. The experimental approaches used in our group span from recombinant proteins and isolated myosin motors to myofibrils, multicellular preparation, cells and whole organ analysis. The computational approaches in the lab include multi-scale model of the sarcomere and large data analytics.

Logan Murphy, PhD

Physiology & Biophysics

Charles E. Murry, MD, PhD

Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, Bioengineering, Medicine/Cardiology

Vishal Nigam, MD

Cardiology, Seattle Children’s

Guy Odom, PhD

Neurology

A primary objective of the Odom lab at the University of Washington is to develop improved therapies for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). CTMR core facilities have provided a unique mechanism to enhance our capacity for generating high quality critical data with regard to muscle metabolism and biomechanics. One ongoing research project pursues a potential synergy between two promising gene therapy approaches toward ameliorating cardiopulmonary performance in preclinical models of DMD. In this project we address the underlying genetic defect of DMD (the lack of dystrophin) by protecting myofibers from further injury via AAV-mediated delivery of micro-dystrophin while simultaneously improving the relative magnitude & rate of cardiac contractility via alternative nucleotide therapy (ribonucleotide reductase) with ionotropic enhancement, potentially providing for a unique therapeutic advantage.

David Perkel, PhD

Biology

Joseph D. Powers, PhD

Laboratory Medicine & Pathology

Feini (Sylvia) Qu, VMD, PhD

Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine and Mechanical Engineering

Nassim Rad, MD

Rehabilitation Medicine

Daniel Raftery, PhD

Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine

Sam Rayner, MD

Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Mike Regnier, PhD

Bioengineering

Jenny Robinson, PhD

Orthopaedic Surgery & Sports Medicine and Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Jenny Robinson is the Endowed Chair in Women’s Sports Medicine and Lifetime Fitness and Joint Assistant Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, Mechanical Engineering, and the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington. Jenny received her B.S. and Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Rice University and Texas A&M University, respectively. Dr. Robinson completed her postdoctoral fellowship in Biomedical Engineering and Craniofacial Biology at Columbia University. The Robinson Lab engineers biomaterial-based in vitro systems to understand the cues needed to promote connective tissue regeneration after injury with a focus on sex differences in this process.

Hannele Ruohola-Baker, PhD

Biochemistry

Shelly Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD

Bioengineering

Shabnam Salami, MD, MSc, FAHA

Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine

Dr. Salimi is a translational physician-scientist in Dr. Daniel Raftery’s lab and a K01 award grantee from the National Institute on Aging. Her research focuses on biological aging as an underlying mechanism of chronic diseases, employing omics tools, cell cultures, and animal models to validate findings from human aging studies. Her current project is to study the mechanisms of accelerated aging following chemotherapy.

Alec S.T. Smith, PhD

Physiology & Biophysics

Nathan J. Sniadecki, PhD

Mechanical Engineering

Kat M. Steele, PhD

Mechanical Engineering

Kat M. Steele is the Albert S. Kobayashi Endowed Professor in Mechanical Engineering. Her work combines musculoskeletal simulation, biomechanical assessments, clinical trials, and inclusive design to improve mobility for individuals with neurological disorders. Current work includes understanding how muscle impairments, such as spasticity, contracture, and weakness impact mobility after brain injury, and investigation of new interventions (i.e., exoskeletons, spinal stimulation, mobility aids) can improve participation and quality of life.

Bert Tanner, PhD

Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience, Washington State University

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.