My overall research interest is in the area of skeletal muscle in health and disease. The research of my group focuses on various aspects of skeletal muscle biochemistry in health and disease, using exercise and disease models in humans, as well as animal models. In particular, we measure proteins in segments of individual fibres allowing issues with the heterogeneity of skeletal muscle to be overcome. We also examine movement of proteins following micro-dissection of fibres, allowing us to quantitatively assess the redistribution of proteins following various interventions.

Casimir is a Contract Research Organization (CRO) that develops novel outcomes for decentralized and hybrid trials in order to better understand disease progression and treatment benefit. Casimir engages patient communities as partners in research, starting every project from the patient perspective and taking new approaches to understanding and documenting disease progression and treatment benefit.

Prof Watt is Chair of the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne and leads the Metabolism and Diabetes laboratory. His team seeks to identify how defects of lipid metabolism and inter-tissue communication cause obesity-related disorders, and to use this information to discover novel targets that can be transitioned to clinical therapeutics.

Christoph Handschin studied Molecular Biology at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, followed by a PhD thesis in the laboratory of Prof. Urs A. Meyer on the transcriptional regulation of hepatic cytochromes P450 important for xenobiotic detoxification. In the subsequent postdoctoral stay in the group of Prof. Bruce M. Spiegelman at the Dana-Farber Institute/Harvard Medical School in Boston, C. Handschin investigated the regulation and function of the co-activator PGC-1alpha in skeletal muscle cells, both in exercise as well as in different pathological contexts. This work was continued and expanded by C. Handschin as an Assistant Professor at the Center for Integrative Human Physiology, University of Zurich. Currently, C. Handschin is a Full Professor of Pharmacology at the Biozentrum of the University of Basel, pursuing the studies of skeletal muscle plasticity in health and disease.