Early career researchers (ECRs) make up almost half the MyAge membership and represent the future of muscle resilience research in the UK. Congratulations go to MyAge ECR, Michael Macleod, who was joint winner of the Michael J Rennie Oral Communication Prize at The Physiological Society’s conference, The Physiology of Obesity: From Mechanisms to Medicine.
Michael’s presentation, The role of obese adipose-derived extracellular vesicles in driving skeletal muscle atrophic responses, examined how signals from obese adipose tissue may induce impairment in the function and metabolism of skeletal muscle. His PhD research takes place at the University of Birmingham’s Department of Inflammation and Ageing, in the laboratory of Professor Simon Jones. Michael has previously contributed to two MyAge-supported pilot projects, one to characterise extracellular vesicles from adipose tissue from lean and obese individuals, and the other to develop a new in vitro model of human muscle ageing. He received a MyAge travel bursary to attend the two-day event at the University of Nottingham, hosted by Dr Peter Aldiss (University of Nottingham) and Dr Craig Doig (Nottingham Trent University).
Michael said, “Conference attendance during PhD training is so important to gain new insights from related fields and feedback from my peers and senior colleagues. This was an excellent meeting and I’m delighted to be a joint prize-winner with Dr Amanda MacCannell, University of Leeds.”
Over the past three years, MyAge funding has supported 44 ECRs to conduct pilot projects, training and knowledge exchange, including bursaries to attend and present their research at conferences related to their research on muscle resilience.
Michael Macleod, presenting his research at the University of Nottingham, and with the Michael J Rennie Oral Communication Prize.