Judy E Anderson

• Cell and development
• Muscle regeneration
• Muscle satellite/stem cell biology
• Comparative development and regulation in skeletal muscle
• Neuromuscular junctions
• Regulation of activation by nitric oxide
• HGF- cmetR signalling in satellite cell activation
• Fibre cytoskeleton
• Age-related atrophy

Research projects in the lab included experiments that examined:

• Processes of satellite cell activation in normal, old and regenerating skeletal muscles
• Regulation of satellite cell activation and quiescence in different species (fish, mouse, human)
• Cytoskeletal proteins and muscle fibre stability in development and disease
• Human muscle disease pathophysiology and response to treatment
• Muscle-specific responses in relation to outcomes of disease and treatment
• In vivo studies of muscle responses to Nitric Oxide-donor drugs and exercise in dystrophy and ageing
• In vivo studies of re-innervation during muscle regeneration

Topics such as the mechanisms of cell injury in normal and dystrophic muscle, compensatory muscle regeneration and hypertrophy, and the effects of various therapies or voluntary exercise on muscle repair, satellite cell activation, muscle growth, bone density, and age-related atrophy were examined using a large variety of cellular, molecular and whole-animal in vivo assays of function. In human studies, the measures were clinical assessment techniques and in vitro assays of biopsy-muscle status, cell proliferation, and gene expression.

Students received training with a ‘systems’ biology approach through courses, bench work, lab discussions, and publications spanning a broad range of muscle-biology questions using studies at the level of single cells, tissues, animals, and humans. Education research has the goal to help improve health care through interprofessional learning.

Studies of satellite cell activation via nitric oxide have opened an exciting area of research on muscle regeneration, growth and the muscle-fibre cytoskeleton that integrates mechanical and biochemical signal transduction with cell and molecular biology of muscle tissue in growth, development, disease, ageing and evolution.

Please note that Judy Anderson is retired and no longer taking graduate students.

• Google Scholar