Dr Nathan Hodson

Supervisor Details

Contact Details

School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham

Scientific Background

Research Interests

Dr Nathan Hodson is an exercise physiologist and biochemist primarily interested in the cellular mechanisms underpinning alterations in skeletal muscle size and protein metabolism across a range of populations; from athletes to older individuals or those living with muscle-wasting conditions.

Supervision Style

In three words or phrases: student-centred, collaborative, development-orientated.

Provision of Training

I combine direct initial technical training from myself with additional training/oversight provided by my post docs/PhD students.

Progression Monitoring and Management

I take a collaborative and pragmatic approach to progression monitoring/management and will have discussion with you when you join our group to understand what approach would work best for both sides.

Communication

My door is always open for discussions or questions about your work. However, I do expect that you have considered potential solutions before coming to me with any problems/issues. I also like all my students/trainees to maintain a healthy work-life balance and will work to ensure you do this.

Meetings

PhD Students can expect scheduled meetings with me at least once per fortnight. These meetings will be a mixture of face-to-face and via video chat or telephone. I am usually contactable for an instant response on every working day.

Work Patterns

Certain tasks in my lab need to occur at set times, and students need to be able to commit to a rota/timetable shared with other members of the team.

Notice Period for Feedback

I need at least 1 week's notice to provide feedback on written work of up to 5,000 words.

MIBTP Project Details

Primary supervisor for:

Understanding the effects of ageing on human skeletal muscle autophagy: Combining novel in vitro and ex vivo approaches

See the PhD Opportunities section to see if this project is currently open for applications via MIBTP.

Please Note: The main page lists projects via BBSRC Research Theme(s) quoted and then relevant Topic(s).

Understanding the effects of ageing on human skeletal muscle autophagy: Combining novel in vitro and ex vivo approaches

Secondary Supervisor(s): Prof Sarah Aldred

University of Registration: University of Birmingham

BBSRC Research Themes:

Integrated Understanding of Health (Ageing, Diet and Health)

Project Outline

Ageing is associated with a progressive loss of skeletal muscle size, strength and function, coined sarcopenia, which is ultimately associated with increased mortality. Autophagy, a process facilitating the degradation of damaged/dysfunctional cellular material has recently begun to receive attention for its role in muscle mass maintenance. Despite being inherently catabolic, inhibiting autophagy in animal models leads to muscle atrophy and reductions in force production. Importantly, there is very little evidence regarding the effects of ageing on autophagy in human skeletal muscle, although we have observed a reduced ability to upregulate autophagic flux in vitro in immortalised muscle cells from an older donor. Our group has also recently optimised an ex vivo technique to assess autophagic flux in human muscle – historically ethically challenging to undertake in vivo.

Therefore, the overall aim of this studentship is to comprehensively study the effects of ageing on skeletal muscle autophagy using in vitro and ex vivo methodologies and will consist of 3 experimental objectives:

1. Characterise autophagic flux in skeletal muscle samples from older and younger participants using our novel ex vivo autophagic flux assay.

2. Compare autophagic flux in primary human muscle cells isolated from younger and older donors to those derived in objective 1 – This could allow the generation of an in vitro model to study potential interventions prior to in vivo application.

3. Determine if the age-related systemic environment influences skeletal muscle autophagy by applying younger or older serum to immortalised human muscle cells – Collectively this planned programme of research will deliver a significant training opportunity in novel methodologies to better understand a vital cellular process’ role in age-related skeletal muscle dysfunction.

APPLY HERE