Rate My Professor Wendy Kohrt

Wendy Kohrt, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine within Health Science at the University of Colorado at Denver's Anschutz Medical Campus. She holds the Nancy Anschutz Endowed Chair in Women’s Health Research at the Ludeman Family Center for Women’s Health Research, where she serves as Associate Director. Kohrt directs research for the Division of Geriatric Medicine, leads the IMAGE research group focused on investigations in metabolism, aging, gender, and exercise, and is Director of the Energy Balance Assessment Core Laboratory for the NIH-supported Nutrition and Obesity Research Center. She chairs the Executive and Steering Committees for the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC), an NIH Common Fund initiative, and is Principal Investigator for one of its Clinical Centers. Additionally, she is Associate Director of Research for the VA Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center and has led the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute as Associate Director of Resources and Services since 2013. Over her 40-year career, Kohrt has maintained continuous NIH funding as Principal Investigator since 1990, authored more than 140 original research publications, and mentored or co-mentored 24 PhD-trained and 14 MD-trained investigators, many of whom have achieved independent research careers.

Kohrt’s research specializations encompass age-related changes in metabolism, sex steroids, and body composition, particularly those triggered by the menopausal transition, skeletal adaptation to exercise, calcium homeostasis during exercise, molecular transducers of physical activity, bioenergetic and cardiometabolic consequences of gonadal function loss, ovarian hormone suppression and adipogenesis, estrogen deficiency and fat accumulation, exercise and hormone replacement therapy in osteopenic elderly individuals, and nonweight-bearing exercise effects on bone mass in older women. Key publications include “Temporal Multi-Omic Analysis Uncovers Sex-Biased Molecular Programs Underlying Skeletal Muscle Adaptation to Endurance Training” (bioRxiv, 2025), “The Bone, Exercise, Alendronate, and Caloric Restriction (BEACON) trial design and methods” (Contemporary Clinical Trials, 2024), and “Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC): human studies design and protocol” (Journal of Applied Physiology, 2024). She contributed to the Federal Advisory Committee for the first Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2008), co-chaired the National Research Council’s Decadal Survey on Biological and Physical Sciences in Space, and is a member of the Isis Network on Musculoskeletal Health through the Society for Women’s Health Research. Kohrt has received the Citation Award from the American College of Sports Medicine and recognition as a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.