Three projects were selected to receive funding through the Center for Translational Muscle Research’s 2026 Pilot Grant program, supported in part by UW BioE. The grants will go toward the collection of preliminary data and feasibility studies for new research focused on sex-based differences in muscle biology and disease. These faculty members earned grants:

• Professors Xinxian Deng and Christine Disteche, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, for the project “Functional Analyses of Muscle Cells with a Different Number of Sex Chromosomes.”
• Professor Jenny Robinson, Departments of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine and Mechanical Engineering, for the project “Interplay of Estrogen Receptor Alpha Isoforms and Mechanotransduction in Female Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells.”
• Professor Alec Smith, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, for the project “Modeling Sexual Dimorphism in Skeletal Muscle Function Using Stem Cell-Derived Engineered Tissues.”

“The Center for Translational Muscle Research’s Pilot Grant program has been very successful throughout the center’s history, and research in women’s health and sex-based differences in muscle health is an important area for strategic growth across campus and around the country,” according to UW BioE Department Chair Princess Imoukhuede. “It is essential that we support programs like these. They drive new research opportunities and deliver novel insights that are at the heart of our work together.”

The Center for Translational Muscle Research is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. It unifies muscle research in the heart of Seattle’s biomedical research community and is led by Professor Michael Regnier of the Department of Bioengineering.