Theresa Mau, Ph.D.
Investigator
Theresa Mau, PhD
Scientist I, Sutter Health Research Institute
Dr. Mau's research on skeletal muscle mitochondrial energetics and aging has shown that the bioenergetic capacity of muscle is a key driver of frailty, multimorbidity, and physical decline in older adults. Her work spans three interconnected areas: muscle mitochondrial function and aging health outcomes, the biology of musculoskeletal and movement-evoked pain, and age-related adipose tissue dysfunction.
Much of this research is conducted through the Study of Muscle, Mobility and Aging (SOMMA), a large multi-site cohort designed to illuminate the cellular biology of mobility decline. Dr. Mau has established links between lower mitochondrial bioenergetic capacity and reduced leg power, poorer cardiorespiratory fitness, greater frailty, and higher multimorbidity burden in older women and men. Her more recent work extends to pain as a contributor to physical performance limitations and to cellular senescence biomarkers and their relationship to major health outcomes. Her work and that of her colleagues has appeared in leading journals including the Journal of Gerontology, Geroscience, Science Advances, and Nature Aging.
Dr. Mau collaborates with researchers at the Sutter Health Research Institute and with investigators across the SOMMA network, a multidisciplinary consortium spanning clinical and research institutions nationwide. Earlier in her career she conducted foundational laboratory work on adipose tissue inflammation and senescence, including the effects of lifespan-extending drug interventions on adipose tissue biology, and has contributed to research in autoimmunity and epigenetics.
Dr. Mau trained first at Portland State University, where she earned a B.S. in Microbiology with honors, cum laude — completing an honors thesis on post-transcriptional modifications of mitochondrial DNA in jumping spiders that foreshadowed her career-long focus on mitochondrial biology. She went on to receive her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she studied aging and immunity in mouse models.