Our colleague Michael John Rennie, from the UK, died on 9 January 2017, at the age of 70.

Mike Rennie had a highly productive research career in human nutrition and physiology, mainly focused on protein metabolism in muscle for over 40 years. After his PhD, related to physical exercise, at the University of Glasgow (UK) (1973), he worked on muscle physiology and disease during different successive post-doctoral positions for 10 years: first at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri (USA) (1973–1977) with John Holloszy, and then at University College London (UK) (1977–1983) with Richard Edwards. In 1983, he was appointed Professor of Physiology, Division of Molecular Physiology, at the University of Dundee (UK) (1983-2003), where he established an active research group on muscle protein metabolism. In 2003, he progressed to Professor of Clinical Physiology at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Nottingham (UK), where he remained as Emeritus Professor after his retirement in 2011.

Mike Rennie was among the researchers who participated in the pioneering research on protein and amino-acid metabolism using stable isotope methods in humans in the 70s. He had efficient collaborative links with other famous groups in the area, including, among others, John Waterlow’s group and related researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK), Denny Bier and Dwight Matthews group at Washington University in St. Louis (USA), Dave Halliday at the MRC Clinical Research Centre at Northwick Park in London (UK), and Bob Wolfe’s group in Galveston, Texas (USA). The research conducted by Mike Rennie involved basic mechanistic research on amino-acid sensing and transport, signal transduction pathways involved in the control of protein turnover and protein deposition, and their application in clinical research approaches in humans.

In particular, Mike Rennie has conducted several important studies on the influence of nutrition, feeding and exercise on muscle protein metabolism and physiology in healthy young subjects, but also in different disease situations and during aging in relation to sarcopenia. His research provided a significant contribution to the understanding of muscle protein and amino-acid metabolism in humans during health and disease, and some of his results will remain as a reference.