Alternative Muscle Club - History

A short history of the AMC

The “Alternative Muscle Club” (AMC) was born out of the idea to give junior researchers an opportunity to present their work in a more friendly and unintimidating environment. Therefore, attendees and organizers of the meeting typically hold junior faculty, postdoctoral, postgraduate student, or research technician positions. Historically, the AMC has been associated with the European Muscle Club (EMC) - now the European Muscle Conference and the European Society for Muscle Research (ESMR).


Timeline of select AMC meetings

Timeline of select AMC meetings in the United Kingdom and the USA.



The first-ever AMC meeting was held at the Department of Zoology, Oxford University, in December 1980. The two-day conference featured talks and poster presentations that represented the entire spectrum of muscle-related research: studies on whole muscle and muscle fibers, structural characterization of myofilaments, and investigations into the biochemistry of muscle proteins. Successive AMCs were held at universities and research centers across the United Kingdom, with Leeds hosting the AMC-UK meeting in 2014. More information here

AMC meetings in America

In keeping with the goals and the spirit of the European AMCs, UC San Diego was proud to host the American Alternative Muscle Club meetings in the summer of 2013 and 2014 (see the 2013 homepage and the 2014 homepage). Our 2015 meeting was held at the University of Arizona in Tucson (see the 2015 homepage).
For all of these meetings, we aimed to honor the same principles as the original AMC meetings: to allow junior researchers to present their work in a friendly and open environment.

Discussion in front of a poster at the AMC 2013 in San Diego Picture: Scientific discussions in front of a poster at the AMC 2013 in San Diego
Audience at the AMC2014 meeting Audience listening to a presentation at the AMC 2014 meeting
Networking event at the AMC2014 in San Diego Networking event at the AMC 2014 in San Diego
Audience at the AMC2015 meeting The PPMD workshop at the 2015 meeting at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Literature

For further reading about the history of the AMC, we suggest the following articles:
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