Eric Emanuelsson

• Preserving muscle mass during obesity treatment

The prevalence of obesity has increased substantially in recent decades and is associated with an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease. Weight-loss treatment with incretin-based medications, such as GLP-1 receptor agonists, produces substantial and clinically meaningful weight loss in most patients and improves cardiometabolic risk markers. However, a clinically significant proportion of the weight lost consists of lean mass, which may affect everyday functioning, particularly in individuals who already have low muscle strength. Well-controlled human studies using precise methods to distinguish muscle loss from fat loss and characterise tissue-specific adaptations are still lacking.

Our aim is to investigate the effects of incretin based pharmacotherapy on muscle mass and physical function in persons with obesity, and to determine how a resistance training intervention may influence these outcomes. The findings could provide much-needed evidence to optimise obesity treatment by maximising fat loss while minimising muscle loss, thereby improving physical function, quality of life, and cardiovascular risk factors.

• Biological maturation and performance development in young female football players

Female athletes experience a plateau in performance during the later stages of puberty that is not observed in boys, particularly in weight-bearing activities such as jumping, sprinting, and running. Previous research indicates that this plateau occurs after the peak height velocity and coincides with increased dropout from football.

This project aims to investigate the relationship between biological maturation and performance development in female football players aged 11–15 through repeated physical performance testing, match analysis, and interviews. Understanding how biological maturation influences performance can help us develop better training methods and support strategies to optimise girls’ athletic development during this important period, and encourage more girls to remain involved in sport for longer.

• Molecular and physiological tissue adaptations to exercise

It is widely recognised that regular exercise improves athletic performance as well as metabolic, cardiovascular and mental health. Although the physiological adaptations to exercise are well understood, less is known about the molecular changes that occur in our blood, skeletal muscle, and adipose tissue following many years of regular exercise. This project investigates these changes by comparing body composition, gene expression (transcriptome), and protein abundance (proteome) in blood, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue in men and women who had either engaged in regular endurance training for at least 15 years, engaged in regular resistance training for at least 15 years, or had not exercised regularly but were otherwise healthy.

My teaching includes lectures and practical laboratory sessions in physiology and exercise physiology for medical students, physiotherapy students, doctoral students, and students taking standalone physiology courses. I have supervised more than ten student projects at both bachelor’s and master’s levels in medicine, biomedicine, and nutrition. In addition to my university teaching, I regularly give lectures for external organisations, including the Swedish Olympic Committee.