Processes activated in neuromuscular diseases have many of their molecular signatures similar to healthy muscle regeneration. However, there will usually be a faulty 'switch' that will plunge the muscle into degenerative state. I am interested in finding these switches and exploiting the knowledge of muscle repair to set them on the right track.

Find out what other things your protein shakes might be doing to you in addition to helping growing your muscles. Aminoacids in them are not just inert building blocks, they have biological functions on their own. And sometimes they might not have the same intentions as you expect them to.

Physical exercise is great for our health. So much so that low exercise capacity is in itself a predictor of premature mortality. However, not everybody gets the same benefits from exercise, and some of us have to work much harder to get there. In this study, we try to understand why and identify genes associated with inherent exercise capacity and response to endurance training.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. In this study we identify a recycling mechanism by which muscle helps the body to get rid of a neurotoxic molecule (kynurenine) while using it to support energy production. This mechanism is induced by endurance exercise training and allows muscle cells to extract more energy from sugar, which enhances endurance exercise performance.

In this article we review the current understanding of how exercise and trained muscles can change the levels of compounds that result from the degradation of the amino acid tryptophan (they’re called kynurenines or kynurenine metabolites). There are several of these molecules and they can have diverse effects on the body. We also speculate on what directions this field might take in the future

One of the goals of our lab is to identify molecules that are important for maintaining muscle mass and strength. In this paper we identify LMCD1 as an important regulator of muscle size. LMCD1 boosts muscle protein synthesis and optimizes calcium usage to increase both muscle mass and strength.

This is a review article that summarizes current knowledge on how some nutrients obtained from food play a dual role in human health: they provide energy and building blocks for cells and tissues, but they also constitute important messengers that can impact mental health or how an organism decides to store energy or use it

PGC-1α molecules are important for our muscles to respond and adapt to exercise training programs. Mouse studies have indicated that finding ways to keep high PGC-1α levels in muscle, fat, or brain could be beneficial for many diseases. Here we report the discovery of several chemical compounds that increase PGC-1α levels in fat cell cultures in the lab, and increase their energy expenditure. They could be further developed to be active in live animals and in different tissues

Exercise training is well known for increasing the energy our muscles use, reducing how much our adipose tissues stores, but also for changing our immune system. In this paper we found that during exercise, muscle secretes into circulation a small molecule (kynurenic acid) that activates a cell surface receptor (GPR35) in both fat cells and certain immune cells that reside in the adipose tissue. The result of this inter-organ communication is higher energy expenditure, and an anti-inflammatory state of the adipose tissue

This study was developed in close collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Ana Teixeira(MBB, KI). We wanted to understand how changes that occur inside the muscle fibers (when we exercise or in situations of muscle disease) are communicated to the neurons that bring information from the brain and that allow us to move (motor neurons). We identified a molecule called Neurturin, that is released from muscle and encourages motor neurons to stay connected to muscle. This finding could have implications in diseases such as ALS

The amino acid tryptophan, which we get from food since our bodies cannot make it, has many different roles in the human body. We need it to make new proteins, but it is mostly used to generate many other molecules with different biological activities. From serotonin – that regulates mood, to melatonin – that regulates sleep, to a group of compounds called kynurenines that regulate many different processes in the body. This review summarizes what we known about the many roles of kynurenines

PGC-1α proteins can change cellular functions by changing the expression (transcription) of different genes. There are several PGC-1α proteins, which affect different sets of genes. Here we found that the different PGC-1α proteins can also change how genes are read (transcribed) so the same genetic information can give rise to different cellular messengers (mRNAs) and effectors (proteins). This process is called alternative splicing

Alternative splicing is a common process by which the same genetic information can be read (transcribed) in different ways, and produce different proteins, with potentially different activities. The bile acid receptor FXR is no exception, although it wasn’t known why cells are able to produce 4 different receptors from the same gene. We found that alternative splicing of the FXR gene can result in changes in liver metabolism that protect from hepatic fat accumulation

Exercise can prevent or treat mild to moderate cases of stress-induced depression, although the mechanisms weren’t known. We found one mechanism that protects the brain from changes elicited by unpredictable stress, which are associated with the development of depression. In brief, if you train your muscles (through aerobic exercise), they acquire the capacity to filter out of the blood a molecule called kynurenine. Kynurenine is known to increase in circulation under stress and to accumulate in the brain, where it correlates with the development of depression.

In this article we aim for a comprehensive review of many gene variants of PGC-1a gene that have been discovered by our and other groups. We have learned that they give PGC-1 an ability to adapt its functionality to specific tissues and stimuli.

When exercising, our muscles take the brunt of the effort. In order to cope with increased demands, molecular pathways orchestrated by PGC-1 gene are activated. The changes however don't stop there, so we decided to have a closer look on how exercised muscle affects the rest of the body.

How do our muscle grow bigger when we perform resistance exercise (for example, lifting weights)? Why don’t they grow as big if we instead perform endurance exercise (like running)? In this study we found that depending on what kind of exercise you perform, muscle cells read (transcribe) the PGC-1α gene in a different way (alternative splicing again!). Endurance training produces a PGC-1α protein variant that makes muscle more energy efficient, whereas resistance training favours another variant linked to muscle growth and strength. Finding ways to selectively increase these PGC-1α variants could help patients with, for example, muscle weakness