The Workshop on Multi-Scale Muscle Mechanics was held on September 18-21, 2009 in one of biology’s most storied sites: the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

The workshop explored the mechanical properties of muscles at spatial scales ranging from molecular to in vivo, multi-muscle/multi-joint systems. The objectives of the workshop were to:

• Discuss current and future research on skeletal muscle, in health and disease;
• Discuss technological advances that are and have the potential to advance knowledge of muscle function;
• Emphasize an integrative approach in studying muscle function;
• Discuss how to integrate/synthesize findings from analyses performed at different scales;
• Promote the interaction of promising young scientists with established investigators; and
• Disseminate the meetings findings to the scientific and lay communities.

The workshop had a unique and exciting meeting agenda, addressing the needs of students and senior investigators alike, in order to meet these objectives. The scientific sessions in the meeting included symposia that explored the mechanical properties of muscle:

• From Proteins to Sarcomeres;
• From Sarcomeres to Fibers;
• From Fibers to Whole Muscles;
• From Muscles to the Muscle-tendon Unit;
• From Muscle-tendon Units to Multi-joint Systems; and using
• Computational Modeling of Muscle from Proteins to Multi-joint Systems

Each of the symposia included a historical/overview presentation followed by two shorter presentations discussing the “state of the science.” The program will also featured two plenary lectures. They were:

• What Can Comparative Biomechanics Teach Us About Muscle in General? Dr. Larry Rome (Professor of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania) will provide this opening lecture in which he will elucidate the contributions to our overall understanding of skeletal muscle mechanics that have been made by studying highly specialized examples of animal muscle.
• Adaptability of Muscle Proteins. Dr. Karyn Esser, an Associate Professor of Physiology at the University of Kentucky, will provide this lecture in which she explores the adaptability of muscle proteins (and contractile proteins in particular) to adapt to altered physiological condition.

These invited scientific presentations featured some of the most prominent names in muscle mechanics. In addition, the contributions of all meeting participants was encouraged through poster and oral presentations from proffered abstracts and through the creation of small discussion groups. These groups considered, defined, and explored the key questions to be answered in order to advance our understanding of muscle mechanics further.

Organizers

	Silvia Blemker, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering University of Virginia
	Bruce Damon, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences Assistant Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics Vanderbilt University
	Richard L. Lieber, Ph.D. Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery University of California, San Diego