Join Matt Borkowski and Dr. Tim West for this informative webinar covering the A-to-Z of assessing muscle performance and contractile function in single muscle fibers.

Assessing contractile function in single muscle fibers is an advanced experimental assay that can provide extremely useful data about muscle performance and the underlying mechanisms of muscle contraction commonly observed in basic physiology, molecular biology, cardiology and comparative physiology.

During this webinar sponsored by Aurora Scientific, Matt Borkowski will give an overview of the instrumentation and standard protocols used in elucidating the functionality of myofilament proteins to assess significant muscle fiber properties like power output, cross-bridge cycling and calcium sensitivity. Following, Dr. Tim West will cover how to isolate and prepare single permeabilized muscle fibers to properly utilize this technique to measure these properties, along with how to analyze the data obtained from the assay. This is an essential resource for anyone endeavouring to study muscle fiber mechanics.

Key Topics Include:

  • Basic operating principles and theory of required instrumentation
  • Understanding when and how to apply standard experimental protocols
  • How to prepare samples for experimentation
  • Analyzing real data and discussing the conclusions it provides
  • Curve fitting procedures to determine peak power

Who Should Attend?

  • Research Technicians interested in studying muscle function
  • PIs and Lab Managers planning muscle function and related disease research
  • Pharmaceutical researchers, lab managers and directors overseeing muscle function research projects
  • Early career researchers focused on in vivo, in situ and ex vivo muscle function research

Click to watch the webinar recording. To view the presentation full screen simply click the square icon located in the bottom-right corner of the video-viewer.

Resources

#ExpertAnswers: Tim West & Matt Borkowski on Single Muscle Fiber Mechanics

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Presenters

Matthew Borkowski

Matthew Borkowski

General Manager
Aurora Scientific Inc.

Matthew Borkowski is a biomedical engineer and a graduate of the University of Toronto. He has been involved in product design and customer support at Aurora Scientific for over 15 years. Today, he spends much of his time in the lab consulting with scientists, assisting with novel application of Aurora Scientific instruments in various disciplines, including muscle, tendon, and connective tissue research.
Tim West, ;PhD

Tim West, PhD

Chief Technician and Laboratory Manager
Royal Veterinary College

Dr. West began his research career in the field of animal energetics in the laboratories of Prof. E.T. Garside at Dalhousie University (MSc) and Prof. P.W. Hochachka at the University of British Columbia (PhD). His work as a research associate with Dr. R.G. Boutilier (Cambridge, Zoology) and as a research fellow with Prof’s N.A. Curtin, R.C. Woledge and M.A. Ferenczi (Imperial College London, Molecular Medicine) focused on the regulation of muscle energy turnover at rest, during hypoxic hypo-metabolism, and during contraction in skeletal and cardiac muscle. Currently, Dr. West is the Lab Manager in the Structure & Motion Laboratory, Royal Veterinary College, where his primary research focus is on relating whole muscle energetics and single fibre mechanics to animal locomotion.

Production Partner

Aurora Scientific, Inc.

Aurora Scientific supports the scientific community in its goal of research and discovery by providing precision instrumentation of the highest quality design, construction and functionality for Muscle Physiology, Material Science and Neuroscience applications.

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Aurora Scientific, Inc.

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