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Modeling how muscles grow: Towards mechanism-based optimization of muscular hypertrophy through resistance training and nutrition

Maintaining healthy skeletal muscle mass and function is important for successful aging. Resistance training and eating sufficient protein are two ways to promote muscle growth. However, optimizing resistance training and nutrition is challenging because it is difficult to translate mechanistic biology knowledge into customized practical advice. We apply an interdisciplinary approach to this challenge, borrowing concepts and tools from biological engineering and systems biology to develop predictive understanding of physiology. Specifically, we apply data-informed mathematical models that take as input resistance training and feeding protocols and predict the resulting muscle protein metabolic responses. In this talk, I will discuss our kinetic model of leucine-mediated signaling and protein metabolism, which coherently synthesizes years’ worth of experimental data and has motivated new hypotheses and concepts regarding muscle protein metabolism in health and anabolic resistance.