As a long-time fan of BYU sports and a lifelong athlete himself, Sam Frandsen (MS '26, EXSC) knew he wanted a career in exercise medicine. But, after graduating in 2024, he discovered an overwhelming number of potential paths to choose from. Unsure which professional route to take, Frandsen chose to remain at BYU as a graduate student, working with Dr. Jake Sorensen to find his niche. It was there he discovered his interest in chronic health conditions, and more importantly, his goal to help alleviate them. Now, he’s centered his graduate thesis on the long-term aftereffects of volumetric muscle loss, a debilitating injury most prevalent in military populations and often caused by blast wounds or car accidents.
“Volumetric muscle loss is when you lose an irrecoverable amount of muscle that results in lifelong disability,” Frandsen explains. This type of injury is caused by catastrophic accidents that result in holes of missing tissue that can only scar over instead of filling back in. People who suffer these injuries lose more than mobility; they are also at risk for chronic diseases like diabetes. With a passion to discover why, Frandsen’s recent study, which won first place in the exercise sciences category at the Life Science Research Conference, aimed to find the source of this insulin resistance.
One critical variable of the experiment was the rodent’s cage size while healing. Some cages were large, allowing the rodents more room to move, while others were smaller to simulate a lack of mobility. Though every rodent with volumetric muscle loss developed some degree of insulin resistance, those with restricted cages had much more advanced stages of diabetes. Frandsen found this detail important, especially when considering human patients with damage to their legs. “If military personnel get a part of their leg blown off, they're on bed rest for a long time. They’re not active,” he explains.
Frandsen intends to use these findings to reassess rehabilitation methods for patients with volumetric muscle loss to lessen the odds of developing diabetes and other chronic diseases. In particular, Frandsen wants to challenge the notion that exercise is harmful while recovering from these injuries, even if movement is difficult or painful. “Exercise is medicine,” Frandsen states. “It’s going to help them avoid chronic illnesses throughout their life, which is extremely valuable.”
“Ultimately, I want to serve those people,” Frandsen continues. Inspired by Jesus Christ, the master physician, he hopes to uplift others just as the Savior did. “Doing my small part to help heal somebody a little bit is extremely rewarding. I want to go into a career where I can help other people, and that's what I'm doing right here.”
Frandsen will finish his master’s program in April 2026, after which he will pursue a PhD in illness and disease accelerants. He hopes to create better rehabilitation strategies for everyone, including those who suffer from volumetric muscle loss, and he encourages others to join the effort. “Participating in research, supporting research, and funding research is something that benefits everyone everywhere,” Frandsen says. “It can change someone’s life, and that’s extremely humbling to think about.”