Vita Birzniece, MD, PhD is a Senior Lecturer at the UWS, clinical researcher in endocrinology and metabolism at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney and a Senior Lecturer (conjoint) at the UNSW. She received PhD in neuroendocrinology in 2004 from the Umea University, Sweden. Over the last 10 years, her research has focused on determining how fat and protein metabolism, body composition and physical function is regulated by hormones. One of her goals is to establish link between fundamental research and clinical application, eg developing a novel safe treatment for sarcopenia. Her current work is aimed to understand how and where growth hormone and sex steroids interact in regulating fat and protein metabolism.