Lynch laboratory: Basic and clinical myology
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Head of Laboratory
Professor Gordon Lynch+61 3 8344 0065
Research Overview
View Professor Lynch's latest PubMed publications listing here
We are interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying skeletal muscle development and regeneration, muscle adaptation and plasticity, as well as the muscle wasting and weakness associated with ageing (sarcopenia), cancer, disuse and muscle diseases and conditions, including the muscular dystrophies and critical illness myopathy.
We are currently investigating skeletal muscle development and regeneration following injury and repair from single muscle stem cells, through to functional muscle fibres and whole muscles. We have a specific focus on stem cell self-renewal and how cellular metabolism may regulate the commitment of muscle stem cells to the myogenic lineage. We hope that a better understanding of these mechanisms will translate to improvements in autologous stem cell transplant therapies applicable to many muscle diseases and conditions.
Our studies on muscle adaptation and plasticity, wasting and weakness encompass investigations of the molecular pathways regulating muscle size and function with a translational approach from cell culture experiments complemented by different animal models as unique platforms for studying muscle wasting, adaptation and plasticity.
Our ultimate goal is to translate our fundamental biological discoveries to human patients through our extensive international collaborative network of geriatricians, critical care physicians, surgeons, neurologists, rheumatologists, anaesthetists, oncologists, endocrinologists, orthodontists, as well as biomedical and tissue engineers.
Staff
Dr Kate Murphy, Senior Research Fellow
Dr James Ryall, Senior Research Fellow
Dr Kristy Swiderski, Senior Research Fellow
Dr Justin Hardee, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr Marissa Caldow, Senior Research Fellow
Audrey Chan, Research Support Officer
Jennifer Trieu, Research Assistant
Timur Naim, Research Assistant
Dylan Chung, Research Support Officer
Alaina Lee, Senior Research Assistant
Suzannah Read, Research Assistant
Students
Savant Thakur, PhD student
Francesca Alves, PhD student
John Nguyen, Masters student
Chloe Li, Masters student
Aundrea Quek, Masters student
Yichen Xue, Honours student
Funding
2019-2021 ARC Discovery Project. Mechanisms of age - related changes in amino acid signaling in skeletal muscle
2018-2021 NHMRC Project Grant. Rescuing the Dystrophin-Glycoprotein Complex to protect muscles from wasting conditions
2018-2020 Duchenne Parent Project. Evaluating a sulforaphane-based nutraceutical to alleviate gastrointestinal dysfunction in DMD
2017-2020 NHMRC Project Grant. Therapeutic potential of skeletal muscle plasticity and slow muscle programming for muscular dystrophy
2017-2020 NHMRC Project Grant. A simple method to improve stem cell transplant therapy
2017-2019 Cancer Council Victoria. Using novel Fn14 inhibitory antibodies to treat cardiac cachexia in cancer
2015-2019 ARC Discovery Project. Understanding the cellular cues that direct muscle stem cell specification