The UMKC Muscle Biology Research Group (MUBIG) is an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Schools of Nursing and Medicine, with collaborations in the Schools of Dentistry, Pharmacy and Computing and Engineering, seeking to make basic biologic discoveries about muscle function that can be translated from the lab bench to the bedside and into the community. Our combined expertise in skeletal, cardiac and vascular smooth muscle represents a unique resource for the comprehensive study of muscle tissue in health and disease. Through our association with the UMKC Center of Excellence in Mineralized Tissues and Musculoskeletal Disease, we are investigating signaling pathways in skeletal, cardiac and vascular smooth muscle linked with decline in musculoskeletal function in aging, fatigue, obesity, diabetes, muscular dystrophies and cardiovascular disease.