Rate My Professor Leigh Breen

Professor Leigh Breen serves as Professor of Translational Physiology in the Diabetes Research Centre within the College of Life Sciences at the University of Leicester, based at Leicester General Hospital. He completed his PhD in Exercise Metabolism at the University of Birmingham in 2010. Subsequently, he pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University in Canada, where he investigated the effects of exercise, nutrition, and inactivity on muscle metabolic health across the lifespan. Before his current appointment in May 2025, he was at the University of Birmingham, serving as Chair of the Centre for Movement and Wellbeing (MoveWell), and held a Visiting Professorship at Beijing Sport University from 2021 to 2023. Professor Breen also acts as Director of the UKRI-funded ATTAIN Network, focusing on transformative healthy ageing research through physical activity for those affected by health inequalities. He has consulted for nutrition and healthcare companies such as Danone Nutricia and The Hut Group.

The research of Professor Breen centres on elucidating the cellular mechanisms of skeletal muscle plasticity and developing targeted exercise, nutritional, and pharmaceutical interventions to optimize muscle adaptation, function, and performance in contexts of health, ageing, and disease. His studies have advanced understanding of how ageing, disease, and inactivity influence muscle protein turnover, the molecular signalling networks that support muscle health, and the potential of lifestyle interventions to rejuvenate muscle across the lifecourse. Current projects explore muscle deterioration in chronological and biological ageing, countermeasures to disuse atrophy, mechanisms of muscle atrophy in chronic inflammatory diseases like liver disease and cancer, and adaptive responses to novel dietary protein sources. With over 100 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals, Professor Breen earned the Young Investigator of the Year Award at the 2011 European Congress for Sports Sciences. He is a frequent invited speaker at international conferences, has successfully supervised five PhD students and eleven MSc by Research students, and engages in interdisciplinary collaborations supported by funding from research councils, charities, healthcare bodies, and industry partners.