Our research is focused on how muscle is both structured and how it functions. Our current emphasis is on atomic resolution imaging of myosin filaments from the indirect flight muscle of certain insect species. Indirect flight muscle is so named because the muscles that power flight are not attached directly to the wings, but instead are attached to the thoracic cuticle. The muscles contract at the resonant frequency of the thorax by a mechanism called stretch activation. Stretch activation also operates in vertebrate hearts, but not as efficiently. We are also developing a method for doing time resolved imaging of muscle tissue. The approach will involve timing the moment of freezing with respect to a selected interval after a stimulus, either a stretch of a stretch activate muscle or after electrical stimulation of a live muscle cell. We will them use focused ion beam milling to prepare a sample suitable for cryoelectron tomography.