Dr. Karyn Esser is Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Aging at the University of Florida. Dr. Esser’s lab has been at the forefront in the study of circadian clocks and cardiac and skeletal muscle health and is now moving into clinical studies of circadian physiology. In 2002, her lab made a serendipitous discovery that circadian clock genes were part the response of skeletal muscle to high force contractions. This discovery significantly modified the trajectory of her research to focus on understanding circadian clock biology in the context of muscle health.

Currently her lab has a diverse research portfolio that includes both preclinical and clinical projects on the following:

1. The role of circadian clocks as a critical transcriptional hub in regulating muscle homeostasis;
2. How the muscle clock changes with age and disease with strategies to improve muscle clock function to support muscle and system health;
3. The Studies of Muscle Mobility and Aging (SOMMA) project pursuing system level circadian physiology and muscle molecular markers linked to functional decline in older people.