Medicine

Over 45 years of research addresses the science of ‘wasting away’

Dr. Leonard “Jim” Jefferson, right, and Dr. Scot Kimball. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons

HERSHEY, Pa. — What happens in the research laboratories at Penn State College of Medicine doesn’t stay in the laboratories.

It reaches to outer space, as adventurers blast off in rockets. It affects American war fighters in oven-like desert heat. It touches cancer patients and aging Baby Boomers too weak to rise from their beds. And it even affects the average “gym rat” in the weight room.

In short, anyone who cares about loss of muscle mass has benefited from the painstaking work of Dr. Leonard “Jim” Jefferson and Dr. Scot Kimball. The research of these scientists has delved into the mysteries of skeletal muscle for over 45 years. Recently, the National Institutes of Health renewed a grant of $392,000 to continue their work – one of the longest continuously funded such grants in the country.

Jefferson notes it’s not the amount of money in the grant that matters. It’s the nod from the NIH to keep going. It is ongoing requests for help from heavy-hitting organizations, such as a commercial spaceflight company and the U.S. Army, that affirm the importance of the science.

“We constantly want to see that the research we do has medical relevance. We have collaborators at other institutions where we can confirm it is applicable to the human situation. I view it as opening more and more doors,” Jefferson said.

Learn more about Jefferson’s and Kimball’s research in this Penn State Medicine article.

Last Updated June 23, 2017

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