PhD in Cardiovascular - Skeletal Muscle in Health and Disease in Leeds United Kingdom | University of Leeds

Pursuing a research degree in the Faculty of Biological Sciences allows you to cultivate expertise as an autonomous investigator in your selected discipline. Guided by your principal supervisor and additional co-supervisors, you'll conduct pioneering investigations into specific biological challenges while joining an extensive network of researchers employing cross-disciplinary methods to address contemporary scientific inquiries. During your doctoral studies, you'll not only deepen your specialized knowledge and research capabilities but also enhance your professional skills through structured training initiatives, seminar participation, and conference engagements.

Skeletal muscle plays an essential role in sustaining life, facilitating movement, breathing, and metabolic processes, yet its adaptations to physical activity and pathological states remain incompletely understood. Our investigations examine muscle architecture and performance utilizing diverse methodologies, from analyzing molecular processes governing excitation-contraction dynamics to evaluating systemic functional parameters that determine muscular efficiency. Our scope encompasses both muscular components - including vascular networks and fiber typing - and the neural circuits mediating communication between the central nervous system and musculature. We explore pathological mechanisms affecting skeletal muscle such as exhaustion, muscle wasting/growth disorders, malignant hyperthermia, statin-induced myopathy, and cardiac dysfunction, with particular emphasis on how exercise, dietary factors, and pharmacological agents influence these conditions.