Micah J. Drummond
Muscle physiologist at the University of Utah who studies why older muscle wastes during inactivity and recovers poorly, and who showed that mTORC1 drives part of the protein-building response to exercise in humans
Professor, Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, University of Utah · postdoc in muscle biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston (to 2008) · PhD in Exercise Sciences, Brigham Young University (2006)
Drummond Lab, Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA) ↗ ORCID0000-0001-5961-8890 ↗
When you lift weights, your muscles start building new protein within an hour or two. In 2009, Micah Drummond, then at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston with Blake Rasmussen, tested whether mTORC1, the cell's growth-control complex, is needed for that response in people (DRU2009). Healthy volunteers took a single dose of rapamycin before a session of resistance exercise. In the control group, muscle protein synthesis rose by about 40% in the first one to two hours. Rapamycin blocked that rise. Rapamycin also blunted ERK1/2 and MNK1 signalling, so the authors concluded that mTORC1 drives the response only in part. The study measured protein synthesis over a few hours, not muscle growth over weeks.
Drummond studied at California Lutheran University, earned a PhD in exercise sciences at Brigham Young University in 2006 and trained in muscle biology at the University of Texas Medical Branch until 2008.
At the University of Utah, Drummond is a Professor of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, with adjunct appointments in nutrition and integrative physiology and other departments. The lab studies how aging, physical inactivity and immune changes combine to cause muscle loss and poor recovery after disuse, such as bed rest, hospital stays or surgery, with a focus on inflammation, cellular senescence and metabolic disease in aged rodents and in people.
Milestones in the Atlas
A selection, not a full bibliography: only papers that meet the Atlas inclusion criteria.
| Year | Evidence | Study |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | H | Rapamycin administration in humans blocks the contraction-induced increase in skeletal muscle protein synthesis DRU2009 First author: showed in healthy volunteers that rapamycin blocks the early rise in muscle protein synthesis after resistance exercise. |
Co-authors in the Atlas 1
People with a profile here who share at least one study with Micah J. Drummond.
ShowHide
- Blake B. Rasmussen Muscle physiologist who studies how mTORC1 and nutrient signaling control muscle growth and loss in people, including during exercise and aging.
Every researcher with a profile →
Thank you. That helps us know which pages have been read by someone who knows the work.
Thank you. We will check it and correct the page.
Thank you. Your answer was counted anonymously.