Save the date for our PMI Winter Symposium – Fri. Dec. 5, 2025.
More details to come — make sure you are on the PMI Seminars/events listserv to receive info for registration, speakers, and additional information.
Please contact via email if you would like to be added to the email distribution list for announcements and reminders for PMI-sponsored events.
Save the date – Fri. 12/12 – for the annual PMI Holiday Party! More details to come.
“We are pleased to announce the appointment of Zoltan (Zolt) Arany, MD, PhD, as Chair of the Department of Physiology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, effective July 1, 2025. The Department of Physiology has long been a cornerstone of scientific excellence at Penn, advancing discovery in cellular and molecular biology through pioneering research and collaboration, and we are excited to see its continued success with Dr. Arany‚Äôs leadership.”
“Having served in this role as interim since April 2024, Dr. Ostap will continue to oversee all aspects of research and research training, including our nationally recognized Biomedical Graduate Studies, Medical Scientist Training Program, and Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs.”
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Erika Holzbaur who was elected Associate Member EMBO in July 2024.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Nathaniel Dyment, Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Bioengineering, who won the 2024 Kappa Delta Young Investigator Award through the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons and Orthopaedic Research Society in February 2024, one of the most respected awards in Orthopaedic Research for Junior Faculty.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Michael Lampson who was elected 2024 AAAS Fellow in April 2024.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Zolt Arany, who was elected to National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in October 2024.
“Zoltan Pierre Arany, Samuel Bellet Professor of Cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, is awarded for elucidating the causes of peripartum cardiomyopathy, a leading cause of maternal death after pregnancy, and for his world leadership in quantitative metabolic studies to address mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure and insulin resistance.”
Please join us on 11/12 at 3pm for our second PMI Science Social w guest speaker Dr. Jennifer Levy!
See the terrific line-up of confirmed speakers, including Dr. Paul Titchenell, for the 2025 Advances in Skeletal Muscle Biology (ASMB) Conference. Register soon to have the opportunity to hear from these, and more to come, renowned speakers! March 19-21, 2025 on the University of Florida campus Gainesville, FL.
Our first PMI Science Social Hour of the fall is coming up on October 1, from 3:00-5:00 PM. Please come catch-up with PMI colleagues while enjoying snacks and drinks.
For this session, PMI trainees will have the opportunity to practice their scientific elevator pitches; sign-ups now open!
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Erika Holzbaur! | Dr. Michael Ostap, interim Chief Scientific Office for PSOM & Dr. Kevin Foskett, Chair of the Department of Physiology, are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Erika L. F. Holzbaur as the new director of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute (PMI), effective May 1, 2024.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Michael Ostap as interim Senior Vice Dean and Chief Scientific Officer for the Perelman School of Medicine!
In 2002, Sally Zigmond and other UPenn/PMI scientists made the seminal discovery of formin’s ability to nucleate and elongate actin filaments (Science; DOI: 10.1126/science.1072309). Utilizing UPenn’s cryo-EM facility, Nick Palmer and Kyle Barrie, students in the Dominguez Lab, have just published in Nature (https://rdcu.be/dJ8mW) the cryo-EM structures of INF2 and Dia1 that now provide a step-by-step visualization of the mechanisms of actin filament severing and elongation, bringing this story full-circle here at Penn! The implications of this study are profound since formin dysfunction is linked to pathologies, including cardiomyopathies, cancers, and neurological disorders. Mutations in the two formins studied in their paper, INF2 and Dia1, produce focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and Charcot-Marie-Tooth neuropathy (INF2), and deafness (Dia1). Please join us in congratulating the Dominguez Lab on this accomplishment!! | Palmer, N.J., Barrie, K.R. & Dominguez, R. Mechanisms of actin filament severing and elongation by formins. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07637-0
Congratulations to Adam Fenton (Holzbaur and Jongens Labs) for receiving the 2024 Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Dissertation.
The Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Dissertation was established in 1995 in honor of the founding Director of BGS, Saul Winegrad, MD, Emeritus Professor of Physiology. The award was created to recognize a dissertation of outstanding quality which makes a significant contribution to biomedical science.
Register by 10/9! Speakers and talk titles announced – PMI Annual Retreat and Symposium.
“Celebrating 50 Years of Muscle, Motors, and the Cytoskeleton” – register now for the PMI Annual Symposium on 10/16/2023. (Deadline: Oct. 9, 2023)
Penn Medicine News: Study Unravels the Mysteries of Actin Filament Polarity. An electron microscopy study revealed key details of actin filaments, which are essential structural elements of cells and muscles.
The Dominguez Lab solves the mystery of polarity at actin filament ends!
See Science article here:
Carman PJ, Barrie KR, Rebowski G, Dominguez R.
Science. 2023 May 25:eadg6812. doi: 10.1126/science.adg6812. Online ahead of print. PMID: 37228182
Please save the date for our 2023 PMI Annual Symposium: “Celebrating 50 Years of Muscle, Motors, and Cytoskeleton Research at the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute” on Monday, October 16, 2023 @ the University of Pennsylvania, Gaulton Auditorium (BRB II/III).
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Gregory Bowman! Dr. Bowman was recently appointed as Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor. The pioneer of biophysics and data science has joint appointments in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics in the Perelman School of Medicine and the Department of Bioengineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Congratulations to Dr. Teji Khurana for being selected for the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. This prestigious award is given annually in recognition of commitment to teaching at Penn. The selection committee chose Dr. Khurana from a highly competitive nomination pool based on his peers’ and students’ letters written on his behalf. Please join us in applauding Teji on this distinguished award!
A $25 million gift from an anonymous donor to Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) will establish the Center for Epilepsy and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ENDD), accelerating collaborative research in genetic therapies for neurodevelopmental disorders. This gift will bolster the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of clinicians and scientists at Penn and CHOP, led by director Benjamin Prosser, PhD, and co-directors Beverly Davidson, PhD, and Ingo Helbig, MD. Dr. Prosser is an associate professor of Physiology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, who adjusted the focus of his research career when his own daughter, Lucy, was diagnosed shortly after birth in 2018 with a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder.
Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Locke, former PMI T32 trainee, for receiving a Career Development Award (CDA-1) from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The PMI Annual Retreat & Symposium “Formation, Maintenance, & Repair of Skeletal & Cardiac Muscle” will be held on Tuesday, November 1, 2022.
Register here for the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute Annual Retreat and Symposium 2022 “Formation, Maintenance, and Repair of Skeletal and Cardiac Muscle.”
Congratulations to Yale E. Goldman for his election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Academy members are world leaders in the arts and sciences, business, philanthropy, and public affairs
Tejvir S. Khurana MD, PhD 2007 ASCI Elected Member The ASCI comprises more than 2,800 physician-scientists from all medical specialties elected to the Society for their outstanding records of scholarly achievement in biomedical research.
Congratulations to Dr. Jenn Levy and Dr. David Hokanson for receiving their Ph.D.’s.
Congratulations to Dr. Jenny Ross on her new assistant professor position in the Department of Physics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Congratulations to Dr. Ram Dixit on his new assistant professor position in the Department of Biology at Washington University, St. Louis
Congratulations to Jennine Dawicki McKenna for receiving an American Heart Association pre-doctoral fellowship.
Congratulations to Gabi Rosenblum for receiving a Human Frontiers Science Program fellowship.
Joseph Laakso is the inaugural recipient of the 2009 P. Leslie Dutton Award for an outstanding lead-author publication by a BMB student.
Congratulations to Dr. Joseph Laakso, a 2010 recipient of the “Saul Winegrad, M.D. Award for Outstanding Dissertation.” Joe was chosen by the Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics graduate group for this award. He did his thesis work in the Ostap Laboratory.
Congratulations to Andy Mead (Stedman Lab) and Dr. Michael Greenberg (Ostap Lab) for being appointed to the PMI training grant.
Congratulations to Trey Schroeder for receiving the 2010 P. Leslie Dutton Award for an outstanding publication by a BMB student.
Congratulations to Lisa Lippert for being appointed to the Structural Biology Training Grant.
Congratulations to Dr. John Beausang for receiving his Ph.D. under Philip Nelson, Ph.D., Department of Physics and Yale E. Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., Pennsylvania Muscle Institute.
Congratulations to Dr. John Lewis for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis, “Examining the coupling of the mechanical and chemical functions of myosin family members using single molecule and bulk solution techniques.” John was advised by Dr. Yale E. Goldman/Dr. E. Michael Ostap. and was a member of the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate program.
Congratulations to Dr. Clara Franzini-Armstrong for her election to the Accademia dei Lincei, which is a premier Italian academy of science, founded in 1603. The academy has a rich history, including counting Galileo Galilei as a member. The academy published Galileo‚Äôs works and supported him throughout his disputes with the church. Giovanni Faber, who coined the name “microscope,” was also a member, as well as noted mineralogist Marco Franzini (Clara‚Äôs twin brother for whom the mineral Franzinite was named) Dr. Franzini-Armstrong is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and the Royal Society (UK).
Congratulations to Dr. Jennine Dawicki McKenna for receiving her Ph.D. under E. Michael Ostap, Ph.D., Pennsylvania Muscle Institute!
Congratulations to Tali Dadosh and Anatoly Zaytsev for receiving poster presentation awards at the PMI/NBIC Symposium.
Congratulations to Dr. Jacob Lazarus for receiving his Ph.D. under Erika Holzbaur, Ph.D., Pennsylvania Muscle Institute!
Congratulations to Meng-meng Fu (Holzbaur Lab) and Steven Jones (Svitkina Lab) for winning the PMI Poster Competition.
Congratulations to Michael Woody (Ostap & Goldman Labs) for winning the 2013 Raiziss Award for academic excellence.
Congratulations to Sarah Rooney(Soslowsky Lab) for winning a poster award at the Penn Bioengineering Grad Group Symposium. Sarah is sponsored by the PMI training program, and the title of her poster was, “Exercise Protocol Induces Muscle, Tendon, and Bone Adaptations in the Rat Shoulder.”
Congratulations to Michael Woody (Ostap/Goldman Lab) for receiving an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Congratulations to Dr. Meng-meng Fu (Holzbaur Lab), this year’s winner of the Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Thesis in the Neurosciences.
Meredith Wilson (Holzbaur Lab) wins award for best poster by a graduate student at the Gordon Research Conference on Muscle & Molecular Motors. This prestigious award was sponsored by the Lymn Foundation HERE Meredith is a former PMI T32 trainee.
Congratulations to Michael Greenberg (Ostap Lab) for receiving a prestigious Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) award from NIH/NHLBI.
Congratulations to Ryan Jamiolkowski (Goldman Lab) for receiving a Ruth L. Kirschstein Award (F30) from NIH.
Congratulations to the PMI team of Ostap, Dominguez, Goldman, Holzbaur, and Shuman for receiving a renewal of their NIH PO1!
Congratulations to Jeff Nirschl (Holzbaur Lab) for being awarded a prestigious F30 fellowship from NINDS/NIH!
Congratulations to Janelle Spinazzola (Barton/Sweeney Labs) for receiving her PhD after successfully defending her thesis! Janelle has been a trainee on the PMI T32 Training Grant.
Congratulations to Meredith Wilson of the Holzbaur Lab who is a CAMB winner of the 2015 Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Dissertation!
Congratulations to Erika Holzbaur for being selected as the recipient of the American Neurological Association’s 2015 F.E. Bennett Memorial Lectureship Award. This award was established in 1979 by Dr. Abram Elting Bennett in memory of his son Foster E. Bennett, MD, and is presented annually to an outstanding researcher and educator in neurology
Congratulations to Dr. Yale E. Goldman who will be awarded the Biophysical Society’s Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding and innovative scientific research, effective and generous mentoring, administrative leadership in the Society, and serving as a role model for biophysicists for over four decades. This award, established by the Biophysical Society, honors service in the field of biophysics and contributions beyond achievements in research.
Dr. Roberto Dominguez and coworkers have discovered that a protein called leiomodin (Lmod) promotes the assembly of an important heart muscle protein called actin. What’s more, Lmod directs the assembly of actin to form the pumping unit of the heart.
Dr. Michael Ostap and Dr. Henry Shuman characterize myosin-I as a molecular tension sensor.
New work from Dr. Tejvir Khurana’s laboratory has identified a gene that negatively regulates muscle endurance. The first author of this paper is Dr. Emidio Pistilli, an alumnus of our T32-supported training program in Muscle Biology and Muscle Disease.
See the recent Penn News article highlighting recent work from Dr. Yale E. Goldman’s Lab.
Dr. Wei Guo and other PMI labs find an important link between cell motility and membrane structure.
Hear Dr. H. Lee Sweeney interviewed about muscle-enhancing drugs on National Public Radio.
The Tran Lab discovers new roles for molecular motors in regulating chromosome segregation.
Congratulations to Dr. Elisabeth Barton for receiving the Basic Sciences Teaching Award from Penn Dental Medicine.
Images from PMI scientists featured at Philadelphia International Airport art exhibit.
The Weisel lab discovers that red blood cells change their shape to facilitate blood clotting.
Dominguez Lab solves the atomic structure of a key protein complex required for cell motility.
The Stedman Lab (including former PMI T32 trainee, Andy Mead) investigates the pathobiology of respiratory functional decline in a model system for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Congratulations to Dr. Elisabeth Barton for receiving the Basic Sciences Teaching Award from Penn Dental Medicine.
Sandra Maday in the Holzbaur Lab resolves crucial steps in autophagosome biogenesis.
The Bi and Svitkina Labs obtain an unparalleled view of septin structures within cells and define septin remodelling dynamics during the cell cycle.
Images from PMI scientists featured at Philadelphia International Airport art exhibit
Janelle Spinazzola (PMI T32 trainee) in Elisabeth Barton’s Lab uncovers a key mechanosensing molecule in the dystrophin complex.
Dr. David Kast has been chosen to present his research at the “Future of Biophysics Symposium” at the 2016 Biophysical Society Meeting in Los Angeles.
Congratulations to Yale Goldman, Vivek Shenoy, Rebecca Wells and colleagues for being awarded NSF funds to launch the STC Center for Engineering MechanoBiology. See NSF press release
Congratulations to Prof. Clara Franzini-Armstrong for being named a 2017 Honorary Degree Recipient! This is one of the University of Pennsylvania’s highest honors.
Congratulations to Yale E. Goldman, MD, PhD on being elected to National Academy of Science. See details
Prof. Wei Guo and colleagues solve the high-resolution structure of the exocyst complex. See details
Ostap and Holzbaur Labs engineer cytoskeletal networks to investigate membrane trafficking and deformation. See paper
Drs. Ben Prosser and Ken Margulies identify a new target for treating heart failure. See Nature Medicine paper
Read about Dr. Hansell Stedman’s and Leon Morales’s (PMI trainee) efforts to engage a young man with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) in participating in their scientific DMD research
Read about and listen to Dr. Michael Ostap, discuss one possible mechanism: a protein that causes fruit fly cells to tilt and their tissues to twist on Science Friday
New paper from Quentin McAfee and coworkers in Arany Lab find TTN mutations that result in truncated titin proteins and reduced full-length titin in patient hearts.
Prof. Clara Franzini-Armstrong has published an incredible archive of >1000 of her most important electron microscopy images. See the article and accompanying images at the below link.
Congratulations to Dr. Ben Prosser for being selected as the recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Investigator Award of the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR). Details of the award can be found below.
