Erin Talbert, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of HHP and the Director of the Muscle Molecular Physiology Lab. Her current lab work is focused on the problems of muscle wasting commonly experienced by cancer patients, which is clinically known as cachexia. This loss of skeletal muscle is associated with poor treatment outcomes and shortened survival for patients with many types of cancer. Despite the fact that cachexia is estimated to affect up to 90% of cancer patients, there are no approved therapies to treat or prevent this syndrome. Her team is currently working to understand the mechanistic causes of muscle wasting in people and animals with cancer. They are particularly interested in the damage that occurs to muscle in people with cancer, and how muscle wasting differs between male and female cancer patients. The laboratory is currently funded by a National Institutes of Health grant and supports a research associate and two undergraduate students, one of whom is completing an honors thesis investigating how muscle wasting differs between male and female patients with pancreatic cancer

Dr. Talbert grew up in Indiana. After earning her undergraduate degree at Purdue she earned her Doctorate from the University of Florida. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Ohio State and the Medical University of South Carolina, Dr. Talbert joined the Health and Human Physiology Department in January, 2020.

For more information, visit the Muscle Molecular Physiology Lab website.