Nancy Curtin was Professor Muscle Physiology in the Molecular Medicine Section of the National Heart and Lung Institute. She did her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Robert E. Davies (FRS) at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, investigating the low ATP usage for high force production during stretch of frog skeletal muscle. She was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship from the Muscular Dystrophy Association to continue research on energy transduction in muscle using heat measurements in the Dept of Physiology at University College London.

She joined the Physiology Department at Charing Cross Hospital Medical School as a Lecturer and continued research on energy turnover and efficiency of energy conversion during contraction. She developed techniques for studying isolated muscle using contractions that mimic normal function in vivo, and are therefore relevant to energy turnover in locomotion. Mathematical modelling of the crossbridge cycle forms an important part of the research, testing how well current models can account for force, power and energy output from muscle. This work was supported by the BBSRC and the Wellcome Trust.

Prof. Curtin taught both medical and science undergraduate courses.  

Prof. Curtin has been an Editor and Distributing Editor of the Journal of Physiology, has served on various grants committees for the BBSRC, and was the Imperial College Representative for the Physiological Society.