“Our recent study shows that exercise leads to expansion of the mitochondrial network and, as a result, energy is distributed to muscle in a more effective manner,” says Professor David Hood from the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health.

David Hood

On the other hand, the research shows that mitochondria become smaller or more fragmented when the muscle is not used – due to aging, for example – which leads to cellular damage and degeneration of muscle cells.

The study, “Expression of Mitochondrial Fission and Fusion Regulation Proteins in Skeletal Muscle During Chronic Use and Disuse”, assesses the effects of aging on mitochondrial morphology and has been accepted for publication by the peer-reviewed journal Muscle and Nerve.

Led by Hood, director of the Muscle Health Research Centre at 91ŃÇÉ«, the study was conducted by his graduate students Sobia Iqbal, Olga Ostojic, Kaustabh Singh and Anna-Maria Joseph.

The findings indicate that the proteins involved in maintaining the size and shape of mitochondria are also regulated by exercise, or lack thereof. According to the researchers, this can have important implications for energy production in muscle, the benefits of exercise and the consequences of chronic inactivity on our health.

The research received support from a Natural Science & Engineering Research Council of Canada grant.

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Professors Caitlin Fisher, David Hood, Joel Katz, Steve Mason, Wendy Taylor and Peer Zumbansen will continue their respective research in digital culture, cell physiology, health psychology, Greco-Roman cultural interaction, experimental particle physics, and transnational economic governance and legal theory.

With the renewals, 91ŃÇÉ« maintains its total of 28 research chairs. “Federal research investments are crucial to attracting and retaining the world's best researchers,” said Stan Shapson, vice-president research & innovation. “The Canada Research Chairs program allows us to sustain 91ŃÇɫ’s globally competitive research across health, the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities. Our researchers’ findings help improve the quality of life, economic, and social well-being of Canadians and people around the world.”

Caitlin Fisher, Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Digital Culture and film professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts, investigates the future of narrative, interactive storytelling, and interactive cinema in the emerging area of virtual reality research. Her research develops techniques and narrative strategies for use in augmented reality (AR) environments, which is increasingly important for Canada's culture and entertainment industries as AR and associated technologies like smart phones become more commonplace.

Left: Caitlin Fisher

Under her direction, 91ŃÇɫ’s AR Lab, part of the in 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, is conducting research at the forefront of art and science collaborations. The lab makes use of both established and emerging technologies to produce innovative research methods, expressive tools for artists and award-winning content that challenges cinematic and literary conventions while enhancing the ways in which people interact with their physical environment and with each other.

David Hood, CRC in Cell Physiology and kinesiology & health science professor in the Faculty of Health, is an internationally-recognized authority in muscle health, exercise and mitochondria. His publications have expanded on the important role that mitochondria play in muscle, and the beneficial effect of exercise in enhancing energy production, preventing cell death and attenuating disease processes.

Right: David Hood

Hood operates one of the world’s most advanced laboratories in the cellular physiology of mitochondria. In January 2010,Ěýhe became the first director of the newly opened 91ŃÇÉ« Muscle Health Research Centre (MHRC), which is unique in Canada. The MHRC integrates research in mitochondria with biomedical research across the University.

Joel Katz, CRC in Health Psychology and psychology professor in the Faculty of Health, is a world-class researcher in the study of pain. His research has significant impact on the way pain is understood and managed in both preventative and rehabilitative medicine.

Left: Joel Katz

His major accomplishments include using a preventative approach to advance the treatment of acute post-operative pain, increasing our understanding of neonatal pain and how to manage it, identifying factors that predict the transition of acute to chronic pain, and discovering previously unrecognized gender differences in the experience of pain. Katz is coordinator of the 91ŃÇÉ« health psychology Graduate Diploma Program, the only program in Canada offering specialized training in health psychology leading to a diploma.

Steve Mason, CRC in Greco-Roman Cultural Interaction and history professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, explores issues of cultural identity among the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean under Hellenistic and Roman rule (200 BCE to 300 CE). He focuses on Judea and the Jewish Mediterranean diaspora in the context of other diasporas.

Right: Steve Mason

The most important literary sources for these questions are 30 surviving volumes by the first-century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37 - c. 100 CE), and Mason is at the forefront of research into these works. He leads an international team of 14 scholars in supplying Josephus with a new translation and the first comprehensive . He has published five books and many articles on related subjects while editing and co-authoring another seven. He manages the popular online database, , and is completing a volume on the fateful Judean-Roman War of 66 to 74 CE.

, CRC in Experimental Particle Physics and physics professor in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, studies the high-energy particle collisions at the and at the accelerator. Her research aims to understand matter’s smallest indivisible components and the forces of interaction between them. Taylor is recognized by her peers as an expert in b-quark physics analysis and particle detector electronics development.

Left: Wendy Taylor

Her primary analysis found the first evidence of spontaneous matter-antimatter transitions of B0s mesons, composite particles that contain both a b-quark and an anti-s quark. She contributed to developing a new calorimeter trigger, which allows high-rate data collection. She is now developing low-noise radiation-hard readout electronics for a new particle detector and algorithms to search for the Higgs boson, the particle believed to be responsible for why matter in the universe has mass.

, CRC in Transnational Economic Governance & Legal Theory and professor in Osgoode Hall Law School, explores globalization’s impact on national political economies, concentrating on changing forms of production and on the politics of privatization and deregulation.

Right: Peer Zumbansen

Zumbansen's research is advancing the development of both a comparative and methodological perspective of globalization on national political economies. His work also explores broader questions concerning political sovereignty and the changing relationship between the state and the market, particularly in the European Union, Canada and the United States. Widely published in both German and English,ĚýZumbansen is the co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the .

Gary Goodyear, minister of state (science & technology), announced the nationwide renewals in Ottawa on March 26. “Our government is investing in science and technology to create jobs, strengthen the economy and improve Canadians’ quality of life,” said Goodyear. “The Canada Research Chairs program is helping our universities develop and attract talented people, strengthening our capacity for leading-edge research, while creating jobs and economic opportunities for Canadians now and in the future."

The CRC program attracts the best talent from Canada and around the world, helping universities achieve research excellence in natural sciences and engineering, health sciences and social sciences and humanities.

For more information, visit the Web site.

By Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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91ŃÇÉ« is flexing its muscle. With the recent launch of the Muscle Health Research Centre (MHRC), the University is devoting time and space to understanding what makes us move, reported .

“It’s a centre that brings together about 16 different scientists who all study muscle in some way. Mostly skeletal muscle, the muscles that make us move,” says David Hood, director of the centre.

Besides looking good, muscle is fundamental to our survival.

“Muscle is 40 per cent of your body, so it’s a large amount of your body mass,” says Hood. “It’s involved in metabolism and locomotion and it adapts. So many of us focus on exercise and how exercise promotes adaptations in muscle that make us healthier. It’s not about high-performance athletes. It’s really about the study of muscle and its relation to the health of Canadians.”

Muscle plays a large role in many health ailments. Diabetes, obesity, aging and even cancer are all related to muscle and its prevalence in the body.

“A third of cancer patients actually die of muscle wasting. They don’t die of the tumour. They die because that tumour secretes things that affect the condition of muscle, and eventually, they’ll have respiratory failure because the respiratory muscles aren’t working.”

The MHRC is the only centre in Canada devoted to studying muscle. “There’s plenty of room for lots of research and that’s why a centre like this is important,” says Hood. “We all have different interests in muscle and come from different sides of the coin, but we all study muscle and its implications for health.”

The centre has been in the works for a number of years but officially opened last month, said Metro. Because 91ŃÇÉ« doesn’t have a medical school, the centre is more research-oriented. However, Hood is looking to grow.

“My goal is to help this develop from the human side,” he said. “We’ve been studying animal models of muscle disease and dysfunction, and models of exercise for many years, but now we’re going to try to move to the human side of things.”

Part of the MHRC’s objective is to increase the visibility of biomedical science at 91ŃÇÉ«, and Toronto in general. “We have a new here at 91ŃÇÉ«. The idea is to attract scientists and students from all over the place. To bring people together and increase the visibility of muscle health research in Canada and around the world.”

By Leyla Emory. Reprinted courtesy of .

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“This centre is unique in that we’re zeroing in on skeletal muscle and its relationship to health, with a strong focus on what exercise can do,” says Professor David Hood,Ěýthe centre’s founding director. “We’re looking for new discoveries on how exercise can benefit Canadians through adaptations in the metabolism and structure of muscle.”

The MHRC conducts collaborative research with scientists from the School of Kinesiology & Health Science and the Department of Biology.

“Like all research centres at 91ŃÇÉ«, the MHRC has an interdisciplinary mandate – that is, enabling researchers from different departments and disciplines to work together towards a common goal,” says Hood.

Scientists from the MHRC are investigating topics such as muscle metabolism, muscle development and muscle adaptations to exercise, metabolic disease and cancer. Professor Tara Haas and colleagues in the MHRC recently identified a cell-signalling process that stimulates blood vessel growth and may help individuals with diabetes to exercise and thereby improve their health (see YFile, Nov. 17, 2009). Hood’s research includes an ongoing series of investigations into the benefits of exercise (see YFile,  May 11, 2007, March 2, 2009 and January 18, 2010).

“As a leading research institution, we’re concerned with bringing the work of our scientists to bear on the real world and improving the health and well-being of Canadians,” says Harvey Skinner, dean of 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Health. The centre will serve as an innovative hub for the life sciences within 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Health, generating new knowledge and disseminating research findings to the public and the health system.

The opening ceremony featured guest speakers, including Olympic figure skater Barbara Underhill; Philip Gardiner, director of the Health, Leisure & Human Performance Research Institute at the University of Manitoba; and Jane Aubin, scientific director of the .

To learn more about muscle health research at 91ŃÇÉ«, visit the MHRC Web site or contact Hood at dhood@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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It may not be the fountain of youth, but researchers at 91ŃÇÉ« have discovered that regular exercise can effectively turn back the clock for aging skeletal muscle.

The study,Ěý“Molecular basis for an attenuated mitochondrial adaptive plasticity in aged skeletal muscle,” was recently published in the journal . The results indicate that the elderly are able to rebuild muscle mass,Ěýand while they will not achieve the abs of a 20-year-old, they can reverse significant damage and loss of muscle function caused by inactivity and old age.

The research team led by Professor David Hood, Canada Research Chair in Cell Physiology and a professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Sciences in 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Health, carried out the study as part of an ongoing series of investigations into the benefits of exercise (see YFile,ĚýMay 11, 2007 & March 2, 2009). This most recent study demonstrates that even in the elderly (individuals of 70 or 80 human years of age), regular exercise has the effect of rejuvenating muscle health, and these benefits are demonstrated by reduced fatigue and enhanced cellular function. The study adds weight to a growing body of findings by Hood and his research team that exercise plays a key role in achieving long-term health, even into advanced age.

Right: David Hood

“We found that muscle does adapt, but it takes a longer time for that adaptation to take place,” says Hood. “It is not a question anymore that regular exercise offers little benefit for elderly individuals because their muscles won’t adapt. That is not the case. The muscles of older individuals do adapt, they just don’t adapt as robustly or as quickly as younger individuals.”

Hood says the study showed that elderly muscle will continue to improve in its responsiveness as long as the exercise continues. "It may take more time but the benefits are definitely there," he says.

"To prove this, we used a well-established animal model of aging, the Fisher Brown Norway rat at young and very old ages. To avoid any differences in exercise behaviour between ages, we used a chronic stimulation model of muscle contraction in which the muscles of one leg were made to contract for three hours a day for seven consecutive days. This represents a standardized high exercise workload which can be imposed on one leg of both the young and old animals while the opposite leg remains at rest," explains Hood.

At the end of the seven-day period, the adaptability of the muscle with respect to its ability to withstand fatigue was assessed. Specifically, Hood's research team looked at key components of muscle cell health, including the production of mitochondria and proteins which are known regulators of mitochondrial synthesis. "While the older muscle fatigued more rapidly than the young muscle, this fatigue was reduced by the exercise and the muscle was 'rescued', allowing it to perform similarly to that of the young muscle," says Hood. In the younger muscle, regular exercise increased the mitochondrial content to a greater degree than in the old muscle, but old muscle did experience an increase and there was reduced apoptosis (cell death) in the old muscle.

Hood says the findings mean that exercise carries huge benefits for all ages, and muscle, no matter what its age, can adapt regardless of how old a person is. “People should be encouraged to exercise continually throughout their life,” says Hood. “Don't expect that as you get older, the adaptations will happen as quickly, but an ongoing lifestyle choice to exercise is very important.”

The benefits, says Hood, are many for the elderly include and include stronger muscles, greater resistance to injury and bone breakage, and enhanced metabolism. “Regular exercise means being less tired doing normal daily activities, improved metabolism which helps you break down fat making you more sensitive to insulin, which is important in preventing pre-diabetic conditions. Better metabolism improves whole body function and wellness.”

Muscle Health Research Centre

Hood's lab is part of 91ŃÇÉ«'s new Muscle Health Research Centre (MHRC),Ěýwhich is the first of its kind in Canada. The centre will celebrate its official opening on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 10:30am.

“This centre is unique in that we’re zeroing in on skeletal muscle and its relationship to health, with a strong focus on what exercise can do,” says Hood,Ěýwho will serve as the centre's director. “We’re looking for new discoveries on how exercise can benefit Canadians through adaptations in the metabolism and structure of muscle.”

The MHRC conducts collaborative research with scientists from the School of Kinesiology & Health Science and the Department of Biology.

“Like all research centres at 91ŃÇÉ«, the MHRC has an interdisciplinary mandate – that is, enabling researchers from different departments and disciplines to work together towards a common goal,” says Hood.

Scientists from the MHRC are investigating topics such as muscle metabolism, muscle development and muscle adaptations to exercise, metabolic disease and cancer. Professor Tara Haas and colleagues in the MHRC recently identified a cell-signalling process that stimulates blood vessel growth and may help individuals with diabetes to exercise and thereby improve their health (see YFile, Nov. 17, 2009).

“As a leading research institution, we’re concerned with bringing the work of our scientists to bear on the real world and improving the health and well-being of Canadians,” says Harvey Skinner, dean of 91ŃÇÉ«'s Faculty of Health. The centre will serve as an innovative hub for the life sciences within 91ŃÇɫ’s Faculty of Health, generating new knowledge and disseminating research findings to the public and the health system.

The opening ceremony will feature guest speakers, including Olympic figure skater Barbara Underhill; Philip Gardiner, director of the Health, Leisure & Human Performance Research Institute at the University of Manitoba; and Jane Aubin, scientific director of the .

The opening will take place Jan. 20, from 10:30am to 1pm, in the Execultive Learning Centre located in X106 Seymour Schulich Building on 91ŃÇÉ«'s Keele campus. For more information, contact Kathy Thomas at thomask@yorku.ca. To learn more about muscle health research at 91ŃÇÉ«, visit the MHRC Web site or contact Hood at dhood@yorku.ca.

By Jenny Pitt-Clark, YFile editor

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91ŃÇɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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