Melissa Erickson, PhD
Faculty Investigator
Translational Research

Overview
Melissa Erickson, PhD, joins the TRI as a Faculty Investigator with a research focus on exercise and lifestyle interventions to mitigate metabolic disease. She will pursue investigations to discover how exercise and dietary interventions impact circadian rhythms and chronobiology to improve metabolism and reduce metabolic disease risk and burden, with an emphasis on skeletal muscle.
Dr. Erickson earned a B.S. in Biology from the University of Georgia (Athens, GA). For her graduate training, she moved to the Kinesiology Department and earned a M.S. in Exercise Physiology. Her work focused on skeletal muscle health, after spinal cord injury in humans. Subsequently, Dr. Erickson earned a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Georgia; her work focused on exercise timing, and exercise-drug interactions. Her work has been published in journals including Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, Journal of Applied Physiology, and Exercise Science and Sports Medicine.
Prior to joining the TRI, Dr. Erickson completed postdoctoral training in metabolism and obesity at both the Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH) and Pennington Biomedical Research Center (Baton Rouge, LA).
Articles
Field-Based Assessments of Behavioral Patterns During Shiftwork in Police Academy Trainees Using Wearable Technology
JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL RHYTHMS
2022
Maternal metabolic health drives mesenchymal stem cell metabolism and infant fat mass at birth
JCI INSIGHT
2021
A Role for Exercise to Counter Skeletal Muscle Clock Disruption
EXERCISE AND SPORT SCIENCES REVIEWS
2021
The Panacea of Human Aging: Calorie Restriction Versus Exercise
EXERCISE AND SPORT SCIENCES REVIEWS
2019
Education & Training
Education
University of Georgia