Identifying potential exercise mediators

Identifying potential exercise mediators Dr Robert Wessells and his team at Wayne State University are researching exercise mediators and mimetics in fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) to explore how to provide the benefits of exercise to individuals who are unable to access it. Here, he shares what he has discovered during his research. Exercise is an indispensable part of our daily life to maintain a healthy body and brain across ages. Regular exercise has been shown to reduce the incidence of many age-related diseases and preserve healthy function during normal aging, improving quality of life and independence. However, regular exercise remains inaccessible to portions of the population due to injury, illness, advanced age, or job-enforced sedentary periods. Therefore, identifying potential exercise mediators or mimetics that can deliver the benefits of exercise to sedentary people would be potentially transformative in reducing disease burden worldwide.