# First person – Sheeza Mughal

## TL;DR

This paper explores how taurine can help restore muscle mass and strength in a lab model of steroid-induced muscle disease.

## Contribution

The study shows taurine activates the AKT–mTOR pathway to treat steroid myopathy in 3D human muscle models.

## Key findings

- Taurine treatment restored muscle mass in 3D in vitro models of steroid myopathy.
- Taurine improved contractile strength through the AKT–mTOR signaling pathway.
- The findings suggest taurine could be a potential therapeutic for steroid-induced muscle loss.

## Abstract

First Person is a series of interviews with the first authors of a selection of papers published in Disease Models & Mechanisms, helping researchers promote themselves alongside their papers. Sheeza Mughal is first author on ‘
Taurine activates the AKT–mTOR axis to restore muscle mass and contractile strength in human 3D in vitro models of steroid myopathy’, published in DMM. Sheeza is a PhD Student in the lab of Javier Ramón-Azcón at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) in Barcelona, Spain, and is interested in developing disease models to simplify understanding of otherwise complex diseases.