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Anna Thalacker-Mercer, PhD

Associate Professor
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama, United States

Anna Thalacker-Mercer, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology (CDIB), UAHSF Endowed Professor of Regenerative and Translational Medicine, and Associate Director of the Center for Exercise Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She also serves as Vice Chair for Training Programs and Mentorship in CDIB and as Leader for the NIH funded, UAB Nathan Shock Center, Research Development Core. Dr. Thalacker-Mercer received her doctorate degree through the Interdepartmental Nutrition Program in the Department of Nutrition Science at Purdue University where she developed a strong foundation in protein nutrition and metabolism, the biology of aging, and skeletal muscle physiology. She continued her research training as a Postdoctoral Fellow at UAB in the NIH funded Nutrition Obesity Research Center, the Center for Aging Translational Research Program, and the Center for Exercise Medicine. During her time as a postdoctoral trainee, Dr. Thalacker-Mercer broaden her research to skeletal muscle cell biology, inflammaging, and exercise medicine. In 2012, Dr. Thalacker-Mercer was recruited to Cornell University as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences. At Cornell, Dr. Thalacker-Mercer established her independent research career on identifying and understanding the essentiality of amino acids, particularly non-essential amino acids, for cell biology. Throughout her research career she has studied age-, inflammatory-, metabolic-, and nutrition-related alterations in human skeletal muscle using cellular, molecular, and -omics approaches in whole muscle tissue and primary cell culture. The overarching objective of her current research program is to identify and understand nutrient and metabolic requirements (i) for maintenance of skeletal muscle homeostasis with advancing age and disease and (ii) for skeletal muscle regeneration following traumatic injury. Findings from her research have far-reaching impact for several populations that face limitations in amino acid availability, skeletal muscle deterioration and declining quality-of-life.

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