Dr. David Williamson

Biography

David Williamson's research seeks to delineate mechanisms that regulate aberrant growth signaling contributing to skeletal muscle anabolic resistance in type 2 diabetes, obesity, and aging. With graduate training in human muscle physiology at the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State, he expanded his knowledge of muscle physiology during post-doctoral training at Hershey Medical Center, where he employed animal cell models. He studied how AMPK activation alters mTOR mRNA translation in various physiological contexts. At West Virginia University, he further sought to determine how altered states of AMPK and/or mTOR activation influence muscle differentiation and/or growth, using cell and mouse models of obesity and aging. His laboratory at the University at Buffalo focused on aberrant regulation of mTOR in aging and obesity, establishing the role of the mTOR inhibitor, REDD1, in the development of an anabolic resistant skeletal muscle phenotype. His research is currently supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) for 5 years (DK119961). He also studies mechanisms contributing to skeletal muscle cachexia in various models, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, aging, cancer, and muscular dystrophy.

Research Interests