News

• Skeletal muscles decay with age, a natural process known as sarcopenia 
• During his time at UC Davis, alum Arik Davidyan investigated testosterone's role in muscle mass gain, maintenance and decay
• Today, Davidyan is a postdoctoral fellow at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, where he investigates the role mitochondrial dysfunction plays in aging

Your muscles ensure your survival.

Written by Andy Fell

Bumblebees are the big lifters of the insect world, able to fly back to the hive with almost their own body weight in nectar on board. A study published Feb. 5 in Science Advances shows how they do it — and that bees can show more flexibility in behavior than you might expect from a bumbling insect. 

• Kimberley McAllister studies the developing brain
• Part of her research focuses on why viral infection during pregnancy can increase the likelihood of a child developing autism and schizophrenia
• McAllister was named director of the UC Davis Center for Neuroscience in 2018, becoming the first female to occupy the role

Puzzles always fascinated UC Davis Center for Neuroscience Director Kimberley McAllister.

To function daily, your body gleans energy from three food-derived macronutrients: carbohydrates, fats and proteins. How you divvy up those macronutrients in your diet is a matter of personal preference.

But what if you could train your brain to prefer one macronutrient over the other?

• Assistant Professor Lucas Smith studies neuromuscular disorders, like cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy
• Smith explores how scar tissue accumulation, which is seen in these conditions, affects muscle mechanics
• He wants to find ways to increase the expression of proteins that can alleviate overly stiff muscles

In debilitating neuromuscular disorders, like muscular dystrophies and cerebral palsy, the body’s muscles scar, turning fibrotic and st