News

Discovery of ketosis-related pathway could lead to new approach for obesity treatments

Cell | November 2024

Maria Dolores Moya-Garzon, Jonathan Long, and colleagues have discovered a new metabolic pathway in mice that may influence weight management. They found that β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), typically used by the body for energy, can be diverted into BHB-amino acids under certain environmental conditions. One of these, known as BHB-Phe, activates brain regions linked with hunger regulation. When administered to obese mice, BHB-Phe reduces appetite and food intake. This new pathway is also conserved in humans, suggesting that BHB-Phe could play a similar role in human metabolism.

Learn more: Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance news story | Stanford University | SciTechDaily | Technology Networks | Neuroscience News

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It’s all about balance: how exercise impacts inflammation and immune health

Molecular Metabolism | November 2024

Regular exercise is known to reduce chronic inflammation, yet it also triggers short-term inflammation after a tough workout. So, how can both be true? Yotam Voskoboynik, Andrew McCulloch, and Debashis Sahoo explored this seeming contradiction by studying a key immune process: macrophage polarization. Their analysis of 75 gene expression datasets shows that after exercise, the body activates M1 macrophages, which drive short-term inflammation for muscle repair. With consistent exercise, the body shifts to M2 macrophages, which reduce chronic inflammation and promote healing. This balance between M1 and M2 macrophages is vital, as disruptions are linked to diseases like cancer, heart disease, and autoimmune disorders, suggesting how regular exercise supports long-term health.

Learn more: Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance news story

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Increasing levels of this molecule could help preserve muscle mass

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | January 2025

Hui Wang, Ronald Evans, and their team have discovered that the protein BCL6 is key for preserving muscle mass. When BCL6 levels were reduced in mice, they lost muscle mass and strength – but boosting BCL6 reversed this muscle loss. This discovery provides a new potential target for treating people at risk of losing muscle, like older adults or those on GLP-1 medications that experience muscle loss with their large weight loss.

Learn more: Salk news story

Biomarker changes with blood flow restriction during resistance training

The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research | December 2024

Athletes and coaches are exploring blood flow restriction (BFR) as a way to maximize strength gains without lifting heavier weights, but what physiological biomarker changes occur under these conditions? Drake Eserhaut, Joseph DeLeo, and Andrew Fry compared three conditions in 19 well-trained men: passive BFR, where cuffs restricted blood flow without exercise; BFR combined with resistance exercise; and regular resistance exercise without BFR. The results showed that BFR with resistance exercise caused the greatest increases in heart rate, blood pressure, blood lactate, and stress markers, along with slower muscle oxygen recovery. This suggests that adding BFR to resistance training provides an extra physiological challenge.

Under-fueling linked to slower times and greater medical risk at Boston Marathon

British Journal of Sports Medicine | November 2024

For years, marathon runners have heard the mantra: “Lighter is faster.” However, Kristin Whitney, Kate Ackerman, and their team debunk that age-old belief by surveying over 1,000 runners – the largest such study to-date – for low energy availability indicators  (LEA-I). LEA occurs when energy intake falls short of exercise demands, leading to fatigue, injury risk, and, in severe cases, Relative Energy in Sport (REDs), which is associated with issues like bone loss and reproductive problems. The team found runners with LEA-I had slower times and a 2.8-fold higher risk of major medical events during the 2022 Boston Marathon. Runners without LEA-I ran faster, even when age, gender, body mass index, training level, and experience were considered.

Learn more: Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance news story | Runner’s World

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Personalized shoulder rhythm model improves kinematic tracking in high-range of movements

Journal of Biomechanics | November 2024

The shoulder’s complexity with four joints makes it difficult to model, especially when it involves high-range of arm motion like in volleyball hitters and baseball pitches. A more accurate approach would improve our analyses of such motions and of rehabilitation after shoulder injuries. To tackle this, Jennifer Maier, Scott Delp and colleagues developed a new approach to personalize shoulder movement in computational models of the upper body. Based on a study of 10 participants, they showed that their method improves estimates of kinematics, even during a high-range of arm motions.

SMART: a new tool for simulating complex cell signaling

Nature Computational Science | December 2024

Cell function is tightly linked to cell shape, yet traditional models of cell signaling struggle to incorporate detailed cell and organelle geometries. A new software tool called SMART (Spatial Modeling Algorithms for Reactions and Transport) addresses this limitation. Led by Emmet Francis and Padmini Rangamani, SMART is able to integrate high-level descriptions about cell reactions with complicated geometries of the biological structures and predict the cellular changes over time and space. The software is publicly available on GitHub.

Learn More: UC San Diego news story | MSN | Tech Explorist | R&D World

New VO₂ metric for more accurate cardiorespiratory fitness assessment in women and individuals with obesity

Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine | December 2024

VO₂peak measures the highest rate at which the body can use oxygen during intense exercise – an important marker of cardiorespiratory fitness. The standard equation to compute VO₂peak often falls short, especially across diverse populations with varying body sizes, ages, and sexes. Everton Santana, Francois Haddad, and colleagues developed and validated a new VO₂peak equation using data from 5,618 individuals. The key to the equation is a new scaling metric: Exercise Body Mass (EBM). EBM accounts for mass, height, age, and sex and results in more accurate cardiorespiratory fitness estimates across diverse populations (e.g., sex and body mass index categories) than traditional methods.

Light-manipulating soft polymer technology could inform the future of sensors

Nature Materials | November 2024

Siddharth Doshi, Mark Brongersma and colleagues have built a soft, flexible optical modulator that can change shape in response to voltage. These shape changes allow the material to manipulate light, similar to systems like chameleon skin and human eyes. Specifically, the material swells and shrinks – adjusting the spacing between nanostructured metal particles – to control light’s color and direction. The innovation improves upon current modulators that are rigid and bulky and could lead to new applications in imaging implants, sensors, and displays directly on contact lenses.

Siddarth Doshi

New ankle exoskeleton reduces Achilles tendon load for runners

Journal of Biomechanical Engineering | January 2025

While existing ankle exoskeletons can reduce Achilles tendon strain and potentially prevent overuse injuries, they are typically limited to lab settings and not practical for outdoor running. Cameron Nurse, Karl Zelik, and their team created an unpowered ankle exoskeleton designed for real-world use. Weighing just 500 grams and attached to the outside of a running shoe, the exoskeleton earned positive ratings and didn’t disrupt ankle motion for most runners. Indoor tests showed the exoskeleton reduced Achilles tendon loads by up to 12%, depending on participant, condition (speed and slope), and the precise tendon load metric used.

Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, CC-BY 4.0

hDIRECT: a human-derived protein platform for safer cytokine control in cell-based therapies

Nature Chemical Biology | January 2025

Cytokines play a key role in the immune system and are important for cell therapies like muscle regeneration. To improve cell therapy outcomes, viral proteins are used to control cytokine activity, but typically, the proteins come from non-human sources, which could trigger immune reactions – a critical constraint to their translational potential. Carlos Aldrete, Xiaojing Gao and their team developed hDIRECT, a platform that uses human-derived proteins renin and its FDA-approved inhibitor, aliskiren, to control cytokine activity, making it safer for use in cell therapies.

Implantable sensors show how resistance training speeds up bone healing

npj Regenerative Medicine | December 2024

Implantable sensors are helping researchers study bone healing and rehabilitation. Kylie Williams, Robert Guldberg, and their team used the sensors to track real-time changes at femur bone injury sites in rats. Their findings showed that resistance training, beginning after a week of recovery, resulted in beneficial mechanical property changes. Those undergoing resistance training also had the largest bone volume and healing compared to those under sedentary or non-resistance conditions. 

Learn more: University of Oregon news story

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