Muscle Group at Virginia Tech

Robert Grange, PhD
Associate Professor
Pathogenic mechanisms in Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Dave Gerrard, PhD
Professor
Ongoing studies range from understanding the basic biochemistry involved in the transformation of muscle into meat, to applied studies involving technology transfer for monitoring fresh meat quality.  

Honglin Jiang, PhD
Professor
Cellular and molecular mechanisms by which growth hormone and IGF-I regulate skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and liver growth.  

Robert Rhoads, PhD
Professor
Research mammalian growth and development with an emphasis on cellular and molecular mechanisms governing skeletal muscle size, regeneration, and metabolism.  

Tim Shi, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Sudies skeletal muscle growth and muscle stem cell homeostasis under normal physiological and metabolically perturbed conditions.

John Chappel, PhD
Associate Professor, Center for Heart and Regenerative Medicine Research

Studies how the blood vasculature develops during early organ formation and during certain diseases such as tumor progression and neurological disorders.

Robert Gourdie, PhD

Director, Center for Heart and Regenerative Medicine Research

Researches the subunit proteins of gap junctions, which are called connexins (the channels that enable direct communication between cells).

Steven Poelzing, PhD
Professor
Co-Director, Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health Graduate Program
Seeks to determine how pathological insults such as cardiac inflammation and edema modulate the risk of sudden death in the young and how age changes this relationship.

James Smyth, PhD
Associate Professor of Biological Sciences
Aims to understand mechanisms of cardiomyopathy at the subcellular level with the objective of identifying new targets for therapeutic interventions aimed at restoring normal cardiac function to diseased hearts.