Our lab is broadly interested in comparative physiology and biochemistry, with an emphasis on how cellular processes affect complex, whole animal phenotypic traits. Much of our effort at the cellular level is directed at understanding muscle energetics and the metabolic principles that drive cellular design. That is, we try to understand how biochemistry works in living cells, accounting for such features as metabolic organization and intracellular diffusion. Our studies of muscle function are then used to define aspects of whole animal behavior, such as the limits to burst escape locomotion or exercise endurance. We study marine invertebrates (such as crabs and lobsters) and fishes because of the extreme diversity in structure and function found in tissues from these organisms, as well as mice, which are excellent biomedical models. We use several experimental techniques that allow us to non-invasively probe metabolism in living cells, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and confocal microscopy, as well as invasive approaches such as cDNA microarray analysis, spectrophotometric assays, muscle contraction measurement, and electron/light microscopy.

Kinsey, S.T., K.M. Hardy and B.R. Locke. (2007). The long and winding road: influences of intracellular metabolite diffusion on cellular organization and metabolism in skeletal muscle. Journal of Experimental Biology. 210:3505-3512.

Nyack, A.C., B.R. Locke, A. Valencia, R.M. Dillaman and S.T. Kinsey. (2007). Scaling of post-contractile phosphocreatine recovery in fish white muscle: effect of intracellular diffusion. American Journal of Physiology, Integrative Comparative and Regulatory Physiology. 292(5): R2077-R2088.

Hardy, K.M., B.R. Locke, M. Da Silva and S.T. Kinsey.  (2006). A reaction-diffusion analysis of energetics in large muscle fibers secondarily evolved for aerobic locomotor function.  Journal of Experimental Biology 209: 3610-3620.

Kinsey, S.T., P. Pathi, K.M. Hardy, A. Jordan and B.R. Locke.  (2005). Does intracellular metabolite diffusion limit post-contractile recovery in burst locomotor muscle?  Journal of Experimental Biology 208: 2641-2652.

Johnson, L.K., R.M. Dillaman, D.M. Gay, J.E. Blum and S.T.Kinsey.  (2004).  Metabolic influences of fiber size in aerobic and anaerobic muscles of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus.  Journal of Experimental Biology  207: 4045-4056.