Karyn Ann Esser MEd, PhD, FACSM

Dr. Karyn Ann Esser, Ph.D., FACSM, is a foremost researcher in the science of exercise physiology and biochemistry. The University of Florida, where she works right now, named her a Preeminence Professor in 2015. Karyn has reviewed many manuscripts from lots of famous journals including Science, PNAS, Nature Cell Biology, et al. She has also served as the Associate Editor of Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews (1999-2004), Journal of Applied Physiology(2006-2011), American Journal of Physiology: Cell Physiology(2011-2014), and now is one of the editorial board of Journal of Neuromuscular Disease. Many professional conferences in the area of exercise science have invited her to give some speech about her work and frontier knowledge, and she will chair ACSM World Congress on “Exercise, Circadian Rhythms, and Sleep” in May 2019.

Karyn’s researches have gotten many funds from NIH since 1995. Her lab at the University of Florida has pioneered research on the role of circadian rhythms and the molecular clock mechanism in skeletal muscle homeostasis and health. Using genetic mouse models, she found that mutations of two different molecular clock genes, Clock and Bmal1, dramatically disrupt skeletal muscle structure and function. Parallel with her work on the molecular clock in skeletal muscle, she is also pursuing the role of physical activity/exercise as a time cue for skeletal muscle and other tissues. She has also shown that time of exercise can significantly alter the clock mechanism in skeletal muscle independent of lighting and the central clock in the brain.

Her research goals are to define the transcriptional networks and downstream mechanisms that link the molecular clock with proper skeletal muscle function and phenotype. Additionally, she is working in mouse and human models to determine the potential for the time of day lifestyle interventions as a therapeutic approach to enhance molecular clock function and attenuate conditions of muscle weakness and wasting seen with aging and chronic diseases.