Staff profile

Dr Giuseppe Saverio Posterino

Senior Lecturer

Faculty of Science, Technology and Engineering

School of Life Sciences
Department of Zoology

Biological Sciences Building 2, Room 356, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

BSc, PhD, La Trobe

Membership of professional associations

Australian Physiology Society

Area of study

Physiology

Brief profile

I completed my PhD at La Trobe University in 1996 studying aspects of skeletal muscle physiology covering basic physiological mechanisms and processes involved in muscle fatigue. In 1997 I commenced my first postdoctoral position at UNSW in Sydney. In 1999 I returned to La Trobe to continue postdoctoral work with the Muscle Cell Research Group and in 2003 was appointed lecture in Physiology at the University of Adelaide. At the end of 2007 I took up an appointment as senior lecturer in the Department of Zoology at La Trobe University. My research career has been principally focused on the physiology of skeletal muscle in vertebrates and examining metabolic factors that contribute to skeletal muscle fatigue. My research interests also extend to work on cardiac muscle examining developmental changes in contractile behavior of the heart under normal and diseased conditions. I have been awarded a number of research grants from national competitive funding sources such as the NH&MRC and Ramacciotti foundation. I have been actively involved in the scientific community as both a subscribing member and member of council of the Australian Physiological Society, organized a public forum on the neuroscience featuring the guest speaker Baroness Professor Susan Greenfield and contribute to a number of international journals and both the NH&MRC and ARC as a peer reviewer.

Research interests

Muscle cell physiology

- Determinants of glucose uptake in skeletal muscle

- Examination of modulators of Ca2+ release in skeletal and cardiac muscle

Reproductive physiology

- Fetal undernutrition and cardiovascular development

Teaching units

ZOO2APH Animal Physiology (2nd year) - Coordinator and lecturer.

ZOO3EPB Field Course (excitable tissues component) - Heron Island Field Course - Coordinator and lecturer .

Recent publications

Posterino GS, Dunn SL, Botting KJ, Wang W, Gentili S and Morrison JL. (2011). Changes in cardiac troponins with gestational age explain changes in cardiac muscle contractility in the sheep fetus. J Appl Physiol. In review

Dutka TL, Mollica JP, Posterino GS and Lamb GD (2010).  Modulation of the contractile apparatus sensitivity and disruption of excitation-contraction coupling by S-nitrosoglutathione in rat muscle fibres.  J. Physiol.

Spencer T and Posterino GS (2009). Sequential effects of GSNO and H2O2 on the Ca2+-sensitivity of the contractile apparatus of fast- and slow-twitch skeletal muscle fibers from the rat.  Am J Physiol Cell Physiol, 296: C1015-1023

Posterino GS & Dunn SL (2008).  Comparison of the effects of inorganic phosphate on caffeine-induced Ca2+ release in fast- and slow-twitch mammalian skeletal muscle.  Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 294(1):C97-105.

Spencer TN, Botting KJ, Morrison JL, Posterino GS (2006). Contractile and Ca2+-handling properties of the right ventricular papillary muscle in the late-gestation sheep fetus. J Appl Physiol. 101(3):728-33.

Older publications

 

Posterino GS, Cellini MA & Lamb GD (2003). Effects of oxidation and cytosolic redox conditions on excitation-contraction coupling in rat skeletal muscle.  J Physiol. 15;547 (Pt 3):807-23.

Posterino GS, Lamb GD. (2003). Effect of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ content on action potential-induced Ca2+ release in rat skeletal muscle fibres. J Physiol. 2003 15;551(Pt 1):219-37.

Lamb GD, Posterino GS. (2003). Effects of oxidation and reduction on contractile function in skeletal muscle fibres of the rat.  J Physiol. 1;546(Pt 1):149-63.

Posterino GS. (2001). "Current" advances in mechanically skinned skeletal muscle fibres. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol. 28(8):668-74. Review.

Posterino GS, Dutka TL, Lamb GD. (2001). L(+)-lactate does not affect twitch and tetanic responses in mechanically skinned mammalian muscle fibres. Pflugers Arch. 442(2):197-203.

Lamb GD, Posterino GS, Yamamoto T, Ikemoto N. (2001). Effects of a domain peptide of the ryanodine receptor on Ca2+ release in skinned skeletal muscle fibers. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 281(1):C207-14.

Posterino GS, Lamb GD, Stephenson DG. (2000). Twitch and tetanic force responses and longitudinal propagation of action potentials in skinned skeletal muscle fibres of the rat. J Physiol. 15;527 Pt 1:131-7.

Posterino GS, Fryer MW. (2000). Effects of high myoplasmic L-lactate concentration on E-C coupling in mammalian skeletal muscle. J Appl Physiol. 89(2):517-28.

Research projects

Aspects of skeletal muscle physiology in health and disease.

We are interetsed in fundamental questions pertaining to the physiology of skeletal muscle contraction.  Projects can potentially examine the role of various modultors of Ca2+ release, both normal and those thought to be involved in fatigue and disease, such as reactive oxygen species.  We are also interested in developing novel techniques that allow new approaches to measuring physiological funstions in real time.  An example fo work currently being done is the determination of glucose uptake kinetics in situ.

Developmental Cardiovscular Physiology.

This area of research focuses on collaborative work with colleagues at the University of South Australia.  We are interested in fetal undernutrition and hypoxia leading to fetal growth restriction and the impact of these insults to the normal development of the cardiovascular system.