His investigations are designed to elucidate relationships among mechanical, structural and biochemical properties of isolated muscle cells.
Current experiments involve the investigation of the modulation of skeletal muscle relaxation.
Crossbridge detachment is influenced by metabolic conditions in the cell and mechanical stress on the crossbridges. The goal is to understand the quantitative contribution of these factors in the determination of the rate of muscular relaxation in different muscle types. Site-directed mutations of regulatory proteins are utilized to study and modify molecular control of contraction and relaxation. Techniques employed include pulsed laser light activation of compounds that lead to rapid changes in calcium either to activate or inactivate muscle and sensitive force transducers to measure resultant cell force.