Dr. Leonardo Nogara
Dr. Leonardo Nogara is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Padua (Italy), working in the Muscle Contractility and Neuromuscular Plasticity unit. He has experience measuring muscle contractility at different scales, from in vivo murine models to ex vivo isolated muscle preparations, down to single muscle fibers mechanically isolated. His work centers on the Super Relaxed State (SRX) of myosin, the main skeletal muscle motor protein. Muscle tissue experiences about a 100-fold increase in metabolic load ranging from rest to active exercise; in this context, the SRX is a biochemical state evolved as an energy-saving mechanism. To explore the physiological and pathological effects of SRX modulation, he developed a single-fiber ATPase assay, which he applies to screen new compounds for the pharmacological modulation of basal metabolism and to biopsies of patients to evaluate myosin energy consumption in hypermetabolic or hypometabolic conditions.