David Hood (physiologist)

David Hood is a Canadian physiologist.
== Biography ==
David Hood completed his PhD in physiology with Dr. Ronald Terjung at the State University of New York, Health Science Center, in Syracuse, New York in 1986. He then spent two years as a Post-Doctoral Fellow with Dr. Dirk Pette at the University of Konstanz in Germany. He joined York University's School of Kinesiology and Health Science, and Department of Biology (Faculty of Graduate Studies) as an Assistant Professor in 1988. He became an Associate Professor in 1992, and Full Professor in 1999. 
== Awards ==
He was the recipient of the American College of Sports Medicine's New Investigator Award in 1989. He has been awarded several research prizes in his career, including the Canadian Society of Exercise Physiology (CSEP) Honour Award, their highest distinction, in 2010.
== Leadership, teaching and training ==
Hood is the founding director, since 2009, of York University's Muscle Health Research Centre (MHRC), designed with a vision to be Canada's leading centre for muscle health research, education and training. In 2020, the MHRC was comprised of 24 active faculty members and more than 120 trainees at all levels of education and has hosted > 175 invited Seminar speakers since 2009.  In his career at York, Hood has supervised 53 Master's students, 18 PhD students, and 17 Postdoctoral Fellows, along with 95 undergraduate thesis and Summer scholarship trainees.
He has been an undergraduate and graduate course director since 1991, having taught courses from years one through four in physiology, exercise physiology, muscle biochemistry and mitochondrial function over the years. Hood has attracted more than $5 million in research funds since receiving his Canada Research Chair in 2003, with $2.3 million obtained in the last five years. Many of the >180 students and post-doctoral fellows that have trained in his lab have graduated to successful careers in academia, medicine, and industry. Hood has received Teaching Awards from each of three faculties: 1) Faculty of Science Teaching Award (1999), 2) Faculty of Graduate Studies Teaching Award (2007), 3) Faculty of Health Teaching Award (Established Career) in 2013. In addition, he was a top 5 finalist nationally for the Canadian Association of Graduate Studies Mentorship Award (2019).
== Research ==
Hood's NSERC- and CIHR-funded research programs are devoted to the study of "Mitochondrial Turnover in Health and Disease", with a particular focus on mammalian skeletal muscle and the role of exercise and/or disuse and aging (Reviewed in ). A number of in vivo and cell culture experimental models are used to interrogate the mechanisms of both mitochondrial synthesis (biogenesis), as well as degradation (mitophagy) in muscle. Multi-disciplinary approaches involving physiological, biochemical and molecular biology techniques are employed. Hood has published over 180 full-paper academic publications in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters as well as greater than 260 abstracts with his trainees (h-index 57; total citations 16,588).
Some noteworthy research findings and discoveries by Hood and co-workers include:
* Description of the energy cost of muscle contractions
* Mitochondrial and nuclear gene products are coordinately regulated during adaptations to contractile activity 
* Leucine is metabolized by muscle but is not a major contributor to the energy cost of muscle contractions
* First demonstration of insulin binding to receptors in human muscle.
* Extensive description of mitochondrial and performance decrements during chronic muscle disuse.
* Lipids are synthesized before proteins during muscle mitochondrial biogenesis.
* Thorough description of mitochondrial biochemical characteristics in muscle.       
* Dystrophic muscle is not deficient in mitochondrial content during early development.
* Pressure overload stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis in the heart.
* Thyroid hormone modifies mitochondria in heart and muscle during growth and development, in part via increases in protein import.
* First demonstration of the regulation of protein import into skeletal muscle mitochondria, and the effect of contractile activity.
* Calcium is an important signal for transcription and mitochondrial gene expression in muscle.
* Contractile activity activates cytochrome c transcription in muscle.
* Exercise attenuates mitochondrially-mediated apoptotic susceptibility in muscle.
* AMP kinase regulates PGC-1alpha transcription in muscle cells.
* Mitochondrial from aging muscle are pro-apoptotic with a loss of function. Aged skeletal muscle adapts to exercise, but with a reduced response compared to muscle from young individuals.
* Both thyroid hormone and exercise training can improve mitochondria in cells from patients with mtDNA mutations.
* First descriptions of how p53 controls mitochondrial content and function in muscle via exercise, in part via signaling and interaction with mtDNA.
* Mitochondrial content determines the degree of gene expression signaling in muscle.
* PGC-1 alpha is not required to restore mitochondrial respiratory function as a result of exercise.
* Both age and exercise affect multi-subunit mitochondrial complex assembly in muscle.
* Chronic muscle disuse alters mitochondrial function and import of proteins.
* Exercise and resveratrol synergistically increase mitochondria in muscle.
* Exercise rescues a mitochondrial protein import defect in muscle.
* Exercise modifies mitochondrial morphology by controlling regulatory proteins. Morphology is regulated by organelle dynamics and movements in the cell.
* One bout of exercise simultaneously activates mitochondrial biogenesis and mitophagy.
* Nrf2 is involved in determining muscle and mitochondrial function.
* Unfolded protein response activation during chronic exercise.
* Exercise-induced lysosomal biogenesis in skeletal muscle.
* Retrograde signaling from mitochondria to nucleus in muscle.
* Defining the roles of parkin, exercise and aging on mitophagy in skeletal muscle.
* Exercise reverses mitochondrial defects in muscle cells.
* Exercise serves as "Mitochondrial Medicine" for muscle.
==In the media==
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== References ==
Category:Canadian physiologists
Category:Professors from Canada
Category:living people