I am an MD/PhD with fellowship training in neuromuscular disease and >25 years of experience in both clinical and basic science studies of electrophysiologic deficits in neuromuscular disease.  The overall goal of my lab is to identify drugs that can be rapidly translated to therapy for patients with neuromuscular disease.  My focus is on electrophysiologic defects in peripheral nerve, the neuromuscular junction and skeletal muscle.  I have published 110 articles that include studies on electrophysiologic defects in myasthenia gravis, Lambert Eaton myasthenic syndrome, critical illness myopathy and neuropathy, spinal muscular atrophy, ALS, a primary myopathy in Huntington’s disease, as well as dysfunction of sensory encoding in chemotherapy induced neuropathy.  Currently my lab is focused on dysregulation of muscle excitability in various genetic diseases of muscle. My lab has been continuously funded by NIH for over 25 years.

Publications since 2020:

Miranda DR, Reed E, Jama A, Bottomley M, Ren H, Rich MM, Voss AA. (2020) Mechanisms of altered skeletal muscle action potentials in the R6/2 mouse model of Huntington's disease. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 319(1):C218-C232 PMID: 32432924

Housley SN, Nardelli P, Powers RK, Rich MM, Cope TC. (2020) Chronic defects in intraspinal mechanisms of spike encoding by spinal motoneurons following chemotherapy. Exp Neurol Sep;331:113354. PMID: 32511953

Ham DJ, Börsch A, Lin S, Thürkauf M, Weihrauch M, Reinhard JR, Delezie J, Battilana F, Wang X, Kaiser MS, Guridi M, Sinnreich M, Rich MM, Mittal N, Tintignac LA, Handschin C, Zavolan M, Rüegg MA. (2020) The neuromuscular junction is a focal point of mTORC1 signaling in sarcopenia. Nat Commun.11(1):4510. PMID: 32908143 

Romer SH, Metzger S, Peraza K, Wright MC, Jobe DS, Song LS, Rich MM, Foy BD, Talmadge RJ, Voss AA. (2021) A mouse model of Huntington's disease shows altered ultrastructure of transverse tubules in skeletal muscle fibers. J Gen Physiol. Apr

5;153(4):e202012637.  PMID: 33683318

Padilla CJ, Harrigan ME, Harris H, Schwab JM, Rutkove SB, Rich MM, Clark BC, Arnold WD (2021) Profiling age-related muscle weakness and wasting: neuromuscular junction transmission as a driver of age-related physical decline. Geroscience. Jun;43(3):1265-1281. PMID: 33895959 

Myers JH, Denman K, DuPont C, Hawash AH, Novak KR, Koesters A, Grabner, M, Dayal A, Voss AA, Rich MM (2021) The mechanism underlying transient weakness in myotonia congenita. Elife Apr 27;10:e65691. PMID: 33904400 

Simpson B, Rich MM, Voss AA, Talmadge RJ. (2021) Acetylcholine receptor subunit expression in Huntington's disease mouse muscle. Biochem Biophys Rep. 28:101182. PMID: 34926838 

Wang X, Nawaz M, DuPont C, Myers JH, Burke SR, Bannister RA, Foy BD, Voss AA, Rich MM. (2022) The role of action potential changes in depolarization-induced failure of excitation contraction coupling in mouse skeletal muscle. Elife. Jan 5;11:e71588. doi: 10.7554/eLife.71588.PMID: 34985413 

Rich MM, Housley SN, Nardelli P, Powers RK, Cope TC. (2022) Imbalanced Subthreshold Currents Following Sepsis and Chemotherapy: A Shared Mechanism Offering a New Therapeutic Target? Neuroscientist. Apr;28(2):103-120. PMID: 33345706

Koesters AG, Rich MM, Engisch KL. (2022) Diverging from the Norm: Reevaluating What Miniature Excitatory Postsynaptic Currents Tell Us about Homeostatic Synaptic Plasticity. Neuroscientist. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35904350

Engisch KL, Wang X, Rich MM. (2022) Homeostatic Plasticity of the Mammalian Neuromuscular Junction. Adv Neurobiol. 28:111-130. PMID: 36066823

Wang X, Dupont C, Grant D, Voss AA, Rich MM. (2023) Plateau potentials contribute to myotonia in mouse models of myotonia congenita. Exp Neurol. Mar;361:114303 PMID: 36563835

Kim JK, Jha NN, Awano T, Caine C, Gollapalli K, Welby E, Kim SS, Fuentes-Moliz A, Wang X, Feng Z, Sera F, Takeda T, Homma S, Ko CP, Tabares L, Ebert AD, Rich MM, Monani UR (2023) A spinal muscular atrophy modifier implicates the SMN protein in SNARE complex assembly at neuromuscular synapses. Neuron. 2023 111(9):1423-1439. PMID: 36863345

Housley SN, Gardolinski EA, Nardelli P, Reed J, Rich MM, Cope TC (2024) Mechanosensory encoding in ex vivo muscle-nerve preparations. Exp Physiol. 2024 Jan;109(1):35-44. PMID: 37119460

Dupont C, Blake B, Voss AA, Rich MM (2024) BK channels promote action potential repolarization in skeletal muscle but contribute little to myotonia. Pflugers Arch. (11):1693-1702 PMID: 39150500 

Myers JH, Denman K, Dupont C, Foy BD, Rich MM (2024) Reduced K⁺ build-up in t-tubules contributes to resistance of the diaphragm to myotonia. J Physiol. 602(22):6171-6188. PMID: 39392724

Kerr NR, Dashtmian AR, Darvishi FB, Brennan CD, Ayyagari SN, Moore PJ, Viteri JA, Wang M, Rich MM, Clark BC, David Arnold W (2025) 5-HT_2C agonism as a neurotherapeutic for sarcopenia: preclinical proof of concept. Geroscience. Online ahead of print. PMID: 39825167

Foy BD, Dupont C, Walker PV 2nd, Denman K, Engisch KL, Rich MM. (2025) Mechanisms underlying the distinct K+ dependencies of periodic paralysis. J Gen Physiol. 2025 May 5;157(3): 4. PMID: 39903205

Fish LA, Ewing MD, Rich KA, Xi C, Chen I, Jaime D, Madigan LA, Wang X, Shahtout JL, Feder RE, Funai K, Christian JL, Wharton KA, Rich MM, Arnold WD, Fallon JR. (2025) MuSK regulates neuromuscular junction Nav1.4 localization and excitability. J Neurosci. Apr 9;45(15):e1279232025. PMID: 39880682

Dupont C, Deardorff A, Nawaz M, Voss AA, Rich MM (2025) Discovery and Treatment of Action Potential-Independent Myotonia in Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis. Ann Clin Transl Neurol. PMID: 40657735 

2019       Wright State Academy of Medicine Outstanding Senior Faculty Achievement Award

2019       Selected as University Professor

2020       Teaching excellence award, School of Medicine

2022       Teaching excellence award, School of Medicine