Most people who work in cell biology don’t come from a career in top-level professional sports, but when Adam Sharples was playing rugby he became interested in the mechanics behind why muscles grew after exercise.
Sharples was playing rugby from a young age and found that the position he played required a lot of muscle, meaning he spent a lot of time in the gym.
He was interested in muscle growth and muscle memory and this led him to pursue a PhD in muscle cell biology.
He eventually became the first person to show that human skeletal muscle has an epigenetic memory of growth after exercise.
Epigenetics are when changes in gene expression are caused by environmental factors, such as how methyl groups detach from genes and cause them to turn on and create proteins that prompt muscle growth.
This affects muscle memory and how muscles react after periods of inactivity.
