Traver Wright

My research interests bridge comparative and translational skeletal muscle physiology and metabolism. Skeletal muscle is malleable, with the ability to adapt over evolutionary scale and rapidly acclimate to changing demands within individuals. Studying the muscle of vertebrates adapted to extreme environments provides insight into animal performance as well as human skeletal muscle physiology and metabolism in health and disease. My comparative animal research experience is broad, ranging from physiological ecology to molecular evolution. I have studied skeletal muscle metabolism at many levels, from modeling the transport and utilization of oxygen and metabolites to high-resolution tissue respirometry. My translational human research includes studying fatigue, metabolism, and loss of muscle mass in patients suffering from inflammatory disease states including cancer and traumatic brain injury.