Description
In this one-hour webinar, Dr. Karyn Esser, PhD, will present an overview of "Circadian Clocks and Exercise: Partners in Health." She will discuss the role of circadian biology in the response to exercise. In particular, Dr. Esser will discuss the impact of time of exercise on the molecular, metabolic and physiologic responses. Finally, she will discuss how the time of exercise can modulate the settings of the circadian clocks in skeletal muscle. The outcomes of of this webinar will address the potential for use of scheduled exercise as a therapeutic intervention for aging and metabolic diseases.
Dr. Esser is Professor and Chair of the Physiology and Aging department and co-Director of the UF Pepper Center. Dr. Esser's lab has been at the forefront in the study of circadian rhythms and skeletal muscle health. In 2002, her lab made a serendipitous discovery that genes controlling the body's "biological clock" also were part the response of muscle to contractions. This discovery changed the trajectory of her research and her focus switched to understanding circadian clock biology in skeletal muscle. Over the years, Dr Esser's group has demonstrated that the muscle circadian clock is necessary for maintaining healthy metabolism and muscle strength. In addition, her work has uncovered a role for the muscle clock in contributing to features of sleep. Her lab is actively working on the following topics:
1) defining the molecular network in muscle regulated by the circadian clock
2) learning how exercise works with the circadian clock to help promote tissue and systemic health; and
3) learning how aging changes the circadian clock function in skeletal muscle and other tissues.