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Two NUTRIM researchers win Young Investigators Award

Joey Smeets (l) and Tim Snijders

Tim Snijders and Joey Smeets, two researchers of the department of Human Movement Sciences (School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism (NUTRIM)), won a Young Investigators Award during the 17th edition of the annual congress of the European College of Sport Science (ECSS) in Bruges (Belgium). Tim Snijders received the 4th prize for his oral presentation and Joey Smeets received the 1st prize for his poster presentation.

Tim Snijders presented his research entitled: “Skeletal muscle satellite cell responsiveness to a single bout of exercise is blunted in the elderly”. In this study he demonstrated that skeletal muscle stem cells of healthy elderly men show a blunted response to a single bout of resistance type exercise compared to healthy young men. This blunted response could contribute to the age related loss of muscle mass.

Joey Smeets presented a poster entitled “A single bout of eccentric exercise results in a type II muscle fiber specific increase in satellite cell content and activation status”. He showed that skeletal muscle stem cells of healthy young men respond in a fiber type-specific manner to a single bout of exercise, emphasizing the need for fiber type specific analysis. Out of 270 selected oral and poster presentations the scientific committee of the ECSS chose the presentations of Snijders en Smeets because of the innovative nature of their research and the enthusiastic presentation.