Rate My Professor Jan West

Jan West is an Associate Professor in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences within the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment at Deakin University, based at the Melbourne Burwood Campus. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from La Trobe University and a Graduate Certificate of Higher Education. Her research encompasses comparative muscle physiology, examining biochemical and contractile properties in crustacean and mammalian muscle fibers. Key publications include "Exposure to As(III) and As(V) changes the Ca2+-activation properties of the two major fibre types from the chelae of the freshwater crustacean Cherax destructor" (2014), "Maternal creatine supplementation from mid-pregnancy protects the newborn spiny mouse diaphragm from intrapartum hypoxia-induced damage" (2010), "Altered fast- and slow-twitch muscle fibre characteristics in female mice with a S248F knock-in mutation of the brain neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor" (2009), "Arsenic speciation in the freshwater crayfish, Cherax destructor Clark" (2009), "Properties of slow- and fast-twitch muscle fibres in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis" (2005), and "Phosphate transport into the sarcoplasmic reticulum of skinned fibres from rat skeletal muscle" (1997). Additional studies cover free amino acids in claw muscle and haemolymph from Australian freshwater crayfish at different stages of the moult cycle, changes in muscle composition during the development of diving ability in the Australian fur seal, and myofibrillar protein composition of muscle fibres from regenerating and pristine claws of the freshwater crayfish Cherax destructor.

Jan West has also contributed to higher education research and pedagogy. Notable works include "Optimising Assessment Workload And Student Experience; A Quantitative And Qualitative Analysis Of An Undergraduate Subject Restructure", "The potential of digital credentials to engage students with capabilities of importance to scholars and citizens" (2017), and "Cane toad or computer mouse? Real and computer-simulated laboratory exercises in physiology classes" (2012). Her publications are available in Deakin Research Online, with a ResearchGate profile listing 24 publications and 482 citations. She is involved in teaching anatomy and physiology units at Deakin University.