I am working on understanding how muscle's 3-D geometry regulates force production at the level of a few strands of proteins. Previous experiments have examined the effect that changing the spacing between contractile filaments has on those filament's generation of force (the process at play in the Frank-Starling mechanism). Previous modeling has studied the effect realignment of force generation sites along contractile filaments, due to contractile filament stretchiness, has on the rate and level of force production. However, no models have yet probed the effect realignment in the direction orthogonal to the contractile filaments has on force generation, or how this realignment may interact with changes in spacing between contractile filaments to produce emergent regulatory phenomena in cardiac systems. Through my work I am creating and refining a fully three-dimensional model of muscle at the sarcomere level that will allow investigation into how muscle's existence in a three-dimensional world alters its ability to contract.

Essentially, this boils down to thinking of contractile filaments in your muscles as little ropes. Everyone else has looked at how those ropes stretch and create force if you pull on their ends, but the thing is: the ropes are really being pulled on their middles. This introduces the possibility that they will sag towards each other and that how they interact will be altered by this sagging. It is these sorts of muscle geometry related processes that I am probing.