CBMS Lecture Series

Dr. Anthony Hessel is a muscle physiologist with a diverse background in cardiac and skeletal muscle mechanics, assistive devices like prostheses and exoskeletons, and biophysics. His most recent work has focused on the use of the small-angle X-ray diffraction technique - a powerful approach that uses high-powered X-rays generated from synchrotrons (particle accelerators) to track the movement of sarcomere motor proteins under near-physiological conditions. Through this work, his research has helped define the role of the sarcomere proteins titin and myosin-binding protein C (MyBP-C) to cardiac and skeletal muscle performance. As a second research focus, X-ray diffraction science is a niche field requiring advanced laboratories and expertise to perform. To remove some of these access barriers for the broader field, Dr. Hessel formed a contract research organization, Accelerated Muscle Biotechnologies (Boston) with a focus to expand where muscle X-ray diffraction can be conducted, as well as improve the hardware and software technology to make it useful for basic, translational, and clinical applications.