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