Ball State Researchers Engage in ‘Moonshot Opportunity’

(Image of the Ball State University Human Performance Lab Building courtesy of Ball State)

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The Ball State University Human Performance Laboratory is part of a nationwide exercise study partnership that has secured $6.6 million over the next six years. The work involves the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Center for Exercise Medicine and the Translational Research Institute for Metabolism and Diabetes in Orlando and aims to find out how exercise changes the body at the molecular level.

The school says it hopes the research could help people engage in "more targeted and optimized activities." The project is part of the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity in Humans Program, which is funded through the National Institutes of Health. Ball State calls the research the "most complicated and highly coordinated human exercise physiology training study in the field’s history."

Human Performance Laboratory Director Scott Trappe says "the NIH initiative is a moonshot opportunity for the exercise community, and the Human Performance Laboratory is honored by be part of the team. This is a new frontier that will move the field forward to better understand the health benefits of exercise."

Researchers throughout the country will develop plans for clinical trial recruitment, tissue sample analysis and animal model selection. Some 3,000 trial participants will eventually participate.

You can connect to more about the research by clicking here.