MPS Research Institute
The MPS Research Institute is a PhD-led research organisation dedicated to muscle protein synthesis — the biological process that decides whether you build, hold, or lose muscle. We partner with them to bring peer-reviewed protein science to the people making everyday nutrition decisions.
Visit mps.instituteWhat is muscle protein synthesis?
Your muscle is never static. Every day some protein is broken down and some is rebuilt. Muscle protein synthesis is the rebuilding side of that ledger. When synthesis outpaces breakdown over weeks and months, you gain muscle. When it falls behind — during illness, ageing, crash dieting, or rapid medication-driven weight loss — you lose it.
Two things reliably raise synthesis: eating enough high-quality protein in a single sitting, and loading the muscle through resistance training. Almost everything else in sports nutrition is a detail layered on top of those two levers.
The MPS Research Institute exists to make that literature accessible — a searchable research library, plain-language explainers, and a specific focus on populations whose muscle is under threat.
Their research pillars
The science of MPS
Muscle protein synthesis is the process that rebuilds muscle tissue. The Institute's core work explains how it is regulated, what switches it on, and why efficient MPS is the key to preserving and building muscle across a lifetime.
Read the fundamentalsGLP-1 & muscle loss
GLP-1 medications drive rapid weight loss, and a meaningful share of that loss can be lean tissue. The Institute reviews the research on what happens to muscle on these drugs and what protein intake and training can do about it.
See the GLP-1 researchResearch library
A searchable, filterable library of published studies on muscle protein synthesis and related topics — the primary literature, not press releases.
Browse studiesMPS Genius videos
Short explainer videos that translate dense protein-metabolism research into something you can actually apply to your training and eating.
Watch the seriesWhat their research means for you
Protein dose per meal beats protein at the end of the day
Muscle protein synthesis responds to a threshold of amino acids — particularly leucine — in a single feeding. Spreading 25–40 g of quality protein across three to four meals stimulates it repeatedly instead of once.
The response is finite, and it switches off
A feeding raises synthesis rates for a few hours, then rates fall back even if amino acids are still elevated. That is why meal frequency and training both matter, and why one enormous protein meal is not equivalent.
Resistance training makes protein work harder
Training sensitizes muscle to amino acids for up to 24 hours. The same protein intake builds more muscle on days you lift than on days you do not.
Ageing and medication blunt the response
Older adults and people in rapid weight loss — including on GLP-1 medication — need more protein per meal to get the same synthetic response. This is the practical core of the Institute's work.
Put the science to work
This hub summarises publicly available material from the MPS Research Institute and links to their site. It is educational information, not medical advice.