Research interests focus on 1) the mechanical properties of skeletal muscle tissue ranging from intact whole muscle to intact or chemically permeabilized individual fibers and 2) the dynamics of intracellular calcium levels as reported by calcium-sensitive fluorescent dyes. By monitoring muscle/fiber force and intracellular calcium simultaneously, insights into the underlying molecular events of activation and contraction are obtained. This, in turn, allows a better understanding of the consequences of alterations in the activation-contraction systems, such as those caused by muscle injury, genetic defects, or advancing age.