James A. Timmons

Trained in multiple disciplines (Physiology/Pharmacology, Metabolism, Genomics and Bioinformatics) I take a Systems approach to studying the connection between aging, human disease and exercise. A PhD studying mitochondrial biology was followed by 7yrs working in pharmaceutical drug-discovery (lead identification and lead development) followed by post-doctoral work in bioinformatics and RNA biology (Karolinska). My published work includes discovery of regulatory control of human mitochondrial responses to dynamic changes in energy demand (PMID: 9421469), discovery of the shared developmental origin of mitochondrial rich brown adipocytes with myogenic cells (PMID: 17360536) and production of detailed molecular models for human insulin-resistance (PMID: 29986096), neuromuscular aging (PMID: 31375147, 31168962) and how these interact with exercise (PMID: 32755574). This has allowed us to identify genes that govern clinical improvements in insulin resistance (PMID: 29986096) and potential new drug treatments (PMID: 35037854). As well as integrated approaches to modelling the human transcriptome we also develop new methods to enable study of coding and noncoding RNA regulation (PMID: 27095197, 35037854). This work has been funded through competitive grants from the MRC, BBSRC, EU, NIH and industry.