University of Tasmania, Australia

Senior Lecturer

General Responsibilities

Following a PhD under Emeritus Prof Mike Clark at UTAS, Dr Richards did post-doctoral research at the Baker Institute in Melbourne on cardioprotection (with Frank Rosenfeldt and Bob Conyers) and calcium signalling (with Alex Bobik and Craig Neylon) in normal and failing hearts.

Following two years at an INSERM unit in Montpellier, France, looking at intracellular Ca and pH signalling in normal and failing hearts with Michel Pucéat, he returned to the University of Melbourne to work briefly with Lea Delbridge on cardiac Ca signalling, supported by an NHMRC Howard Florey Centenary Fellowship.

In mid 1999, Dr Richards took up an academic appointment with the School of Medicine at UTAS, and resumed PhD work on muscle metabolism with Profs Mike Clark (Emeritus) and Steve Rattigan. In 2006 his lab joined the novated Menzies Research Institute under the Directorship of Prof Simon Foote.

Teaching Responsibilities

Dr Richards teaches extensively in undergraduate Biochemistry units, coordinating a number of second year units. He also has overall responsibility for coordinating the Honours programs offered by the School of Medicine, including students doing research projects with the Menzies, and serve as Graduate Coordinator for the School of Medicine, and as one of two GRC’s for the Menzies Research Institute

• CBA221 - Biochemistry A (Pharmacy)
• CBA235 - Biochemistry (Agriculture)
• CBA260 - Biochemistry: Metabolism & Nutrition
• CBA265 - Molecular Biology in Health & Disease
• CBA343 - Advanced Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Publications

• St Pierre, P., Genders, A. J., Keske, M. A., Richards, S. M., & Rattigan, S. (2010). Loss of insulin-mediated microvascular perfusion in skeletal muscle is associated with the development of insulin resistance. Diabetes Obesity & Metabolism, 12(9), 798–805.
• McLean, S. R., Richards, S. M., Cover, S., Brandon, S., Davies, N. W., Bryant, J. P., & Clausen, T. P. (2009). Papyriferic acid, an antifeedant triterpene from birch trees, inhibits succinate dehydrogenase from liver mitochondria. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 35(10), 1252–1261.
• Ponsonby, A. L., Blizzard, C. L., Pezic, A., Cochrane, J. A., Ellis, J. A., Morley, R., Dickinson, J. L., Sale, M. M., Richards, S. M., & Dwyer, T. (2008). Adiposity gain during childhood, ACE I/D polymorphisms and metabolic outcomes. Obesity, 16(9), 2141-2147.
• Rattigan, S., Bussey, C. T., Dwyer, R. M., & Richards, S. M., (2007). Obesity, insulin resistance, and capillary recruitment. Microcirculation, 14(40302), 299-309.

Web Access Research Portal (WARP)

Additional Information

Research Interests

Dr Richards' Group has provided considerable evidence that the metabolism of muscle is heavily influenced by the supply of blood to the myocytes via the microvasculature, not only during exercise, but also upon exposure to insulin following a meal, when the muscle must rapidly store dietary glucose as muscle glycogen.

The Group has also found that the actions of insulin on microvascular blood flow are impaired or absent in obese, or insulin resistant humans and animals. Their three chief aims are:

1. To understand the precise mechanism by which microvascular flow is altered to enhance delivery of nutrients and hormones (such as insulin itself) to muscle cells;
2. To determine the biochemical nature and causes of impairment of microvascular blood flow regulation by insulin in pathological states such as insulin resistance;
3. To discover alternative means of enhancing microvascular blood flow to overcome the impairment associated with insulin resistance.

The Group has developed a range of techniques for measuring microvascular blood flow in muscle, and couples these with techniques for assessing muscle metabolism in animal models of obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes and exercise training. Recent projects have focussed on:

• the vascular and metabolic actions of the adipocyte-derived hormone adiponectin;
• enhancement of the vascular and metabolic actions of insulin by agents that augment nitric oxide signalling, and AMPK signalling;
• the role of the CNS in insulin action in the microvasculature;
• analysis of the contribution of vasomotion to enhanced microvascular delivery by insulin.