Dr Beth Phillips, Assistant Professor in Clinical, Metabolic & Molecular Physiology at the University of Nottingham Royal Derby Hospital Centre has been awarded a BBSRC New Investigator Grant ‘Harnessing muscle-specific atrophy susceptibility to disentangle the mechanisms of disuse atrophy in human skeletal muscle’. The grant worth £360K will investigate the underlying reasons for muscle wasting in response to disuse in humans, and explore the time-course of this (i.e. does most muscle wasting occur in the first few days?). As skeletal muscle is crucial for both movement and whole-body health (e.g. control of blood sugar), and given that ‘health’ of muscles is directly linked to physical (in)/activity, this project could have ground-breaking implications for understanding muscle changes during periods of disuse, and associated health outcomes. Moreover, this project will form the basis for identifying optimal strategies (exercise, nutrition or drug-based) to counter the adverse effects of skeletal muscle disuse.