Titin: A tunable spring in active muscle

REMOTE

Meeting ID: 920 5810 3689

Password: 936576

Seminar Guest Name: Kiisa Nishikawa, Regents' Professor, Northern Arizona University

About the Speaker: Kiisa Nishikawa is a Regents' Professor of Biology at Northern Arizona University, For the past 30 years, her laboratory has investigated the contribution of muscle properties to biomechanics and neural control of movement. Investigations in her laboratory range from biophysics of single titin molecules and myofibrils, to physiological studies of intact muscles from wild type and transgenic mice, to development and testing of bio-inspired control algorithms for wearable devices. Recent projects include development of titin-based models for forward prediction of in vivo muscle forces during perturbed locomotion across a range of speeds and gaits in animals and humans, and inspiration for design of soft actuators and robots based on tunable viscoelastic properties of biological muscles.

Abstract: The current paradigm of muscle function - the sliding filament swinging cross-bridge theory - was developed largely between 1938 and 1973. In this paradigm, muscle is viewed as a motor that produces force depending on its activation, strain and velocity. However, several recent scientific developments have led to a growing recognition that many important problems remain unsolved and the theoretical foundation on which the field is based remains incomplete. An alternative view is emerging that muscle is a tunable, active material. In this paradigm, muscle force develops not only in response to the combined effects of activation, which tunes the muscle’s viscoelastic properties, but also in response to deformation by applied loads. This seminar will review experiments and models related to this new paradigm of muscle function, as well as implications for controlling robotic prosthetic devices and designing artificial muscles.