Research Interests

Short Description: Neural regulation of insect muscle properties.

Long Description: What are the factors that determine muscle performance and what are the muscle fiber design trade-offs that permit the wide range of muscle performance observed in the animal kingdom? My laboratory has focused on structural, biochemical and biophysical studies of insect and crustacean muscles in an effort to determine the relative importance of intrinsic and extrinsic components of muscle fibers to the mechanical properties of muscles underlying discrete behaviors. Specific studies presently underway involve the performance of single unit flight muscles of cockroaches with respect to dimorphism in males and females; and the rhythmically driven respiratory muscles of the green crab, Carcinus , where work and power output are being investigated as a function of frequency, strain and phase of stimulation.

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