Jane Kent, Ph.D.
Lab Director
jkent@kin.umass.edu
Background
Dr. Jane Kent is the Director of the Muscle Physiology Lab and the Kinesiology Department Chair at UMass Amherst. She received her B.A. and M.A. from California State University, Long Beach and her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Dr. Kent specializes in skeletal muscle, fatigue, bioenergetics, aging, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.
Research Interests
Dr. Kent’s primary interest is in the area of human skeletal muscle function and fatigue. In particular, her work examines the mechanisms of fatigue, and how these vary depending upon age, gender, chronic health status, and habitual physical activity level. A related interest is an examination of the influence that fatigue has on functional capacity. She takes a state-of-the-art, integrated approach to understanding human muscle function from the cell to the organism. The main problem she is working on now is how to minimize the loss of mobility and health that occur in old age.