Faculty

My research focuses on understanding how and why anxiety and fear affect physical health and risk behaviors. Psychological determinants of chronic disease and risk behaviors have been studied for decades, focused primarily on depression and personality, however comparatively less research has focused on anxiety which is distinguished uniquely by hyperarousal and fear-avoidance behavior. We utilize a translational research approach to: (a) identify biopsychological fear mechanisms that contribute to health behavior and physical disease, (b) isolate how these mechanistic factors influence health behaviors “in real time” through use of experimental methodologies, and in turn (c) develop tailored interventions that target these mechanisms to promote health behavior change and prevent the onset or progression of chronic disease.  The importance of this work stems from its ability to inform our knowledge of disease prevention and ultimately reduce the burden of illness in vulnerable members of our community. 

My research focuses on the role of physical activity and exercise in improving cognition and cardiovascular health, as well as for managing the consequences of aging and neurological diseases. This work also involves applying wearable technology and novel metrics that advance physical activity measurement and promotion for studying its outcomes in real-world settings. Additionally, I use advanced statistical approaches to examine the within- and between-person associations of health behaviors and outcomes across diverse populations.

My lab focuses on understanding the mechanisms of age-related conditions and declines and how different interventions may affect these mechanisms. I apply causal inference methods to provide more rigorous causal evidence in observational studies.

Equine and comparative nutrition and how it affects the performance of the athletes.

My work focuses on utilizing pragmatic approaches (e.g., combining human motor unit/neuron recordings with computational modeling) to identify neural, muscular, & sensorimotor mechanisms of weakness, physical function/mobility limitations, & fatigue with aging, injury, illness, & neurodegenerative disease.

My primary research interest is understanding how sleep impacts health outcomes, and how health behaviors, such as diet, exercise and substance use, impact sleep. Since arriving at Rutgers in 2017, I have mentored two graduate students, one who received an ACSM research grant in her fourth year and began her tenure-track faculty position at Stockton University in Fall 2023 and another who plans to defend his dissertation in Summer 2024. I have also served on several PhD and MS candidate committees. I have an ongoing NIH R01 funded project to examine sleep and alcohol use behaviors in young adults and currently have two R01s and one R34 under review. Graduate students joining the lab would assist with projects utilizing at-home EEG, wrist actigraphy and twice-daily sleep diaries to measure sleep in young-to-middle aged adults and learn techniques related to other health behaviors as well (e.g., body composition, exercise timing, and substance use).

Comparative exercise and cardiovascular physiology with a particular interest in baroreceptor function and renal and neuroendocrine control of blood pressure, blood volume, and fluid and electrolyte balance; the effects of ergogenic (performance-enhancing) practices on the physiological responses of the equine athlete

A chief focus of our team is to identify novel strategies in which exercise minimizes insulin resistance for the prevention/treatment of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. While exercise and diet reduce risk for chronic disease, the optimal prescription remains unclear. Further complicating this matter is the fact that not all people respond the same way to exercise, diet, pharmacology, or bariatric surgery. Therefore, determining how to tailor treatments for maximal metabolic fitness is a knowledge gap we look to fill. We are currently funded by NIH and have received funding from the American Diabetes Association, American College of Sports Medicine, Diabetes Action Research and Education Foundation, among others. Through this research, we look to share this knowledge to the community. In turn, our group is involved in the Exercise is Medicine-On Campus Initiative as well as Diabetes Education Program through the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition to promote the lifelong well-being.

My primary research interest is understanding and defining the contributions of physical activity, and fitness in the prevention, and management of chronic disease, including cardiovascular (CV) disease, CV risk factors, chronic kidney disease, and cancer. Additional areas of interest include (1) defining the impact of different exercise types and exercise volume on cardiac structure and function; (2) defining safe and effective exercises for all ages, and different diseases; (3) defining the exercise volume threshold necessary to achieve the health benefits associated with exercise for different age groups; and (4) defining the risks associated with excessive exercise practices.

My research interest revolves around how biomechanics can inform and improve rehabilitative exercise for a wide range of populations, especially those in the clinical realm. My current research has a large emphasis on patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis, those following total knee arthroplasty, and pediatric patients diagnosed with cerebral palsy. An overarching goal is to assess and develop novel interventions to assist patients during their rehabilitation and/or treatment of their medical diagnoses to achieve a higher quality of life and better lifelong outcomes. Specifically, my research implements augmented visual feedback with an aim to enhance exercise that is commonly found within physical therapy mediated exercise. Additional areas of interest include (1) human performance, (2) musculoskeletal modeling (e.g., Open Sim), (3) cycling related biomechanics; and (4) assessment of injury risk and preventative measures.

Energy metabolism and body composition

The roll redox active molecules play in cellular signaling and how nitric oxide (NO) operates in both health and disease.

Pediatric cancer survivorship; Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer survivorship; Health-related quality of life and psychosocial functioning of cancer survivors; Using mobile health ("mHealth") technology to promote healthy behaviors

My primary research interest is in how physical activity may help those who experience social challenges, such as being ignored, left out or rejected. This research focuses on young adults, typically developing children, and children with ADHD. Additional interests focus on youth sport coaches and scientific issues related to sport and exercise psychology. Active research projects include measurement of coaching efficacy beliefs among youth sport coaches, predictors of retention for youth sport coaches, and social well-being of injured youth athletes.

My current research program uses basic human experiments to better understand the role of psychophysiological arousal in people’s ability to adapt to internal states, such as emotions, and provocative cues in the environment, such as alcohol. I’m interested in how the cardiovascular and central nervous systems work together to regulate physiological arousal and cognitive processes that support behavioral adaptability and flexibility. My translational science goal is to identify promising results from these basic laboratory studies and use them to develop and refine behavioral interventions that target and affect change in cardiovascular and neural systems to promote heath.

Protein and amino acid metabolism, adaptation to cell stress by elF2 and mTOR pathways; nutrition and exercise.

My primary research focuses on understanding how a physically active lifestyle can delay or prevent age- and disease-related cognitive decline. I am particularly interested in identifying specific aspects of physical activity and the underlying physiological mechanisms that influence dementia risk. My laboratory employs a diverse set of techniques, integrating laboratory measures of physical activity and energy expenditure with advanced neuroimaging methods. I collaborate with ongoing aging cohort studies to uncover the neurological pathways through which physical activity and exercise help preserve cognitive health throughout mid-to-late life.

My primary research interest is in understanding the health implications of recreational alcohol and cannabis use, and how these substances use behaviors affect sleep and exercise. I have three ongoing NIH R01 funded projects. My recently graduated and current 5th year graduate student were both awarded NIH F31 grants. Our projects use cardiovascular psychophysiology to study (1) how common but unhealthy habits in college pile up to affect vascular dynamics, (2) individual differences in how drinking affects acute sleep and whether poor sleep worsens drinking consequences (with A. Spaeth and the Rutgers Sleep Lab), (3) how recreational cannabis use affects sleep (with A. Spaeth and the Rutgers Sleep Lab), (4) the vascular, cognitive, and behavioral effects of mixing alcohol and cannabis, (4) how acute intoxication affects blood pressure; and, (5) whether alcohol consequences vary based on the menstrual cycle.

My primary research interests involve understanding how exercise and other behavioral interventions can be used to enhance physiological, neurocognitive, and psychological resilience. I have an ongoing NIH R21 project with Dr. Marsha Bates to examine whether a brief behavioral intervention of slow-paced breathing can interrupt automatic alcohol cue reactivity and enhance cognitive control in young adult binge drinkers. My senior graduate student was recently awarded an NIH F31 grant to study co-occurring physical activity and alcohol use behaviors. My research laboratory uses a multi-method approach including electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related brain potentials (ERPs), heart rate variability and impedance cardiography, along with behavioral and self-report measures to capture mechanisms and efficacy of health-related behaviors on cognitive and emotional health outcomes.

My research interest is understanding the mechanistic, e.g. molecular biology, intersection of how sex, diet, and exercise impact the gut microbiota, intestinal health, and systemic health using human and animal models. I have ongoing Department of Defense funding and three NIH proposals under review. My current 3rd year PhD student has grant funding for their dissertation project and my two first year students are completing required coursework and engaging in research projects to refine their human and animal study design and implementation expertise as well as develop skills to incorporate into their wet lab toolkit. These projects examine: 1) how oral antibiotics impact human exercise performance, gut microbiota and fecal/serum metabolomes (multi-site trial with C. Bell at Colorado State University); 2) how the gut microbiota regulates exercise performance differently between the sexes (with S. Vatner at RU NJ Medical School in Newark) ; 3) how exercise and sex influence intestinal goblet cells, mucus production, and immune and inflammatory responses (with D. Laskin and L. Joseph in Pharmacology and Toxicology; 4) how dietary fatty acids influence the gut-brain axis in menopause (with T. Roepke and D. Roopchand, SEBS RU-NB) and 5) how gender-affirming levels of estrogen in male mice impact exercise metabolism in skeletal muscle, heart, brain, adipose tissue, and gut (with T. Roepke and I. Shmarakov, SEBS RU-NB).

Metabolism of bone and cartilaginous tissue; diet and human metabolism; osteoporosis

My main research interest is the effect of lifestyle habits (nutrition, sleep, physical activity, stress, socialization, substance use) on human health. Lifestyle Medicine is a new and exciting field. Initiative that I am currently pursuing include: the establishment and direction of the international Institute of Mediterranean Lifestyle Medicine (Med LM) (https://medlifestyle.org), b) continuing the long-term study (2005 - today) Mediterranean Islands Study (https://medlifestyle.org/medis/) examining the effect of the Mediterranean Lifestyle on longevity and morbidity.