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The project: a 元気 super-relaxed state in striated muscles

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  Let me introduce shortly the project.   The main reason why I am living in Japan now.   The super short story, is that a new state has been “recently” discovered in the striated muscle. A state which is stable in the   relaxed muscles , which was   hiding itself   because for many decades researchers were interested in the  active behavior of muscles . It’s obvious isn’t it? You want to know how muscle contract, not how the can stay relaxed!! Well, the current view is that this new state, called  SUPER-RELAXED STATE , can deeply influence the  active behavior  of muscles, especially of cardiac muscle, causing also serious diseases when it’s  equilibrium is perturbed . So, in this sense the super-relaxed state is pretty “active” or “genki” (げんき, or 元気) in Japanese. A 元気 super-relaxed state ! So! My Global Fellowship project aims at: (i) defining the theoretical bases of the recently discovered “mechanosensing” (MS) mechanism that acts on muscle molecular motors (ii) applying it in a q
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Role of mitochondria on the Calcium diffusion inside a muscle cell

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How important is the calcium diffusion in the sequential activation of the thick filament? I discussed about this topic in a previous post . With my collaborators at the Department of Biomedical Science s in Padova University, we are exploring this issue through a mathematical model based on experimental data on calcium signalling in the three main compartments of the muscle cells: sarcoplasmic reticulum, cytosol and mitoshondria. In fact, while usually neglected, we think that mithocondria may play an important role in the calcium distribution during activation, at least in skeletal muscle cells. Our work lead to an extensive review done with the priceless enormous contribution of Prof. Carlo Reggiani, just published in the Journal of General Physiology.  You can read it here , but our main conclusion is that the mitochondria may have an important role, and that this must be elucidated with further analyses.  From the point of view of the super relaxed state, and its activation, this
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