The Hornberger Lab

New preprint! We show that mTORC1 is critical for myofibrillogenesis and the radial growth of myofibrils in response to mechanical overload. biorxiv.org/content/10.648… We also propose a model that redefines how mTORC1 might actually drive growth. Full breakdown in this thread 👇

The lineup for this conference is looking really nice. uh.edu/pharmacy/news-…

“Myonuclear dynamics after skeletal muscle surgical injury” by undergrad Micah Goeke along with Drs. @PJKoopmansPhD and Nate Serrano. Seems like those non satellite cell-derived myonuclei are more active than we realize. #myotwitter faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/fj…

Congrats to @UKYCMB on this absolute banger! “Exercise-associated microbial metabolites prevent skeletal muscle atrophy in adult female mice” #myotwitter nature.com/articles/s4146…

Update: NIH now exempts Basic Experimental Studies in Humans from clinical trial classification. With @proferikrichter we made this case in 2024 (+ support of 95 colleagues) — mechanistic human studies are not clinical trials! Journals & WHO should follow rdcu.be/fr91V

New study shows that partial range of motion in the leg extension at long muscle lengths elicits greater hypertrophy compared to training at short muscle lengths. Moreover, gains for the long length condition were generally comparable to training through a full ROM. These findings are consistent with the growing body of evidence suggesting that the lengthened portion of a repetition provides the strongest stimulus for muscle hypertrophy. Nice work from @MuscleMechsLab 💪 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42392615/

Carried by Dr. @RonaldGJones3, “the gigaMYC paper” as the trainees call it: “Transient MYC Mimicking the Exercise Response Orchestrates Multifaceted Skeletal Muscle Adaptations”. A huge collab that started many many years ago. Too many to thank! biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

What if you could record cytosolic activities or archive proteins on an intracellular tape across time? 📼 Introducing CyTRACE: a genetically encoded, modular framework built on protein tape recorders for scalable post hoc spatiotemporal analysis and molecular interrogation. 🔍 CytoSense records protease & kinase signaling activities 📦 CytoCatch archives cytosolic proteins along CytoTape Preprint out: doi.org/10.64898/2026.… 🧵Thread (1/7)

Three-dimensional imaging reveals preserved intrinsic contractile function in aging human skeletal muscle fibers biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

@BradSchoenfeld No question about whether it was well deserved. Congrats Brad

I'm truly honored to receive the William J. Kraemer Outstanding Sports Scientist Award from the NSCA. Advancing the field of exercise science has been my life's work, so it is especially meaningful to be recognized in this regard by the world's leading organization for strength and conditioning. I am deeply grateful for this distinction. Most importantly, I want to thank the many researchers with whom I've had the privilege to collaborate over the years. In particular, I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my students—past and present—whose dedication, curiosity, and hard work have made so much of what I've accomplished possible. Research is fundamentally a team endeavor, and this recognition reflects the collective efforts of countless colleagues, collaborators, and mentees. I am proud to share this honor with all of them.

Six years ago, Jamie (@jhibbert_phd) sent me her CV with the goal of becoming Professor Hibbert. 🎓 Today, she leaves the lab having accomplished exactly that. Grateful for the time, rigor, and care she devoted to the lab and wishing her all the best on the road to tenure!

Skeletal-muscle-targeted non-viral delivery of full-length DMD mRNA for Duchenne muscular dystrophy nature.com/articles/s4155…

Acute molecular and chronic adaptations to lengthened partial versus full range of motion resistance training. Awesome & hyper relevant dissertation work by @DanielPlotkin_ from @AuburnKINES with collab from @ @EXSS_UMHB. biorxiv.org/content/10.648…

Had a fantastic time presenting some our of our work on FSHD (supported by @SOLVEFSHD) at @BiochemExercise in Roanoke, VA. Thanks to the organizers for having us and my team at @HornbergerLab for the company and support @Muscles_n_Mitos @jhibbert_phd &Corey Flynn @RNMarshallPhD

IBEC2028 announced. Australia welcomes you! Geelong is the destination. Lock in the dates and keep your eyes open for more. #IBEC2028

Wish I could've been at #IBEC2026 to see my PhD student Corey Flynn and postdoc Dr. Hector Paez (@Muscles_n_Mitos) collect their APS poster awards. Both are rising stars with exceptional potential ... thrilled that the voting committee picked up on what I see in them. 🎉

IBEC2028 in Melbourne! Go Aussie!

@BiochemExercise @brianglancylab Who won?

@brianglancylab with the intense focus!!

Many tried but few survived @ZhenYanLab during #IBEC2026 pickleball event!

Hello world, meet 1,000× Expansion Microscopy. 1,000,000,000× expansion by volume! A gel that starts at a few centimeters will then expand to the volume of an Olympic swimming pool. biorxiv.org/content/10.648… In our new bioRxiv preprint, work carried out between MIT and UMG, led by Helena Hu in collaboration with scientists from the labs of @eboyden3 Ed Boyden, Silvio Rizzoli, and myself, we present Thousandfold Expansion Microscopy. By enlarging biological specimens across multiple rounds of expansion, molecular-scale features, as small as the distances between adjacent amino acids, can be visualized with conventional optical microscopes. Democratizing super-resolution microscopy.

I received the final proofs for the 3rd edition of my textbook, "Science and Development of Muscle Hypertrophy." Looking back, it’s remarkable to see how much hypertrophy science has advanced over the past decade. One of the most intriguing developments has been our evolving understanding of the mechanisms underlying hypertrophy. Emerging evidence has helped clarify the intrinsic stimuli that drive muscle growth, and in particular, has increasingly called into question a meaningful role for muscle damage in the process. In the past, I speculated that there may be a “sweet spot” whereby mild muscle damage could enhance anabolic processes beneficial to muscle development (e.g., satellite cell activity, macrophage signaling). However, more recent research suggests these responses are primarily associated with more severe muscle damage, which is inherently detrimental to subsequent performance and, hence, long-term gains. Given the inherent challenges of mechanistic research in humans and the difficulty in establishing causal inference, a contributory role for muscle damage cannot be completely ruled out. That said, if such an effect does exist, it is likely to be minor in practical significance. The mechanisms that drive muscle development remains an exciting area of research that should continue to evolve in the coming years. We know a lot more than we did a decade ago, but there’s still much to learn. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon: amazon.com/Science-Develo…