Labs

We in the Applied Metabolism & Physiology Laboratory (AMP Lab) conduct clinical translational research to prevent/treat obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. To accomplish this, we view exercise as a “drug” and focus on improving metabolic health by optimizing the prescription of exercise in people at risk for chronic disease. We study the interaction of exercise intensity/mode with nutrient intake, pharmacology, and/or bariatric surgery to maximize improvements in insulin sensitivity, beta-cell function, substrate oxidation, inflammation, appetite and endothelial function.

The Cardiac Neuroscience Laboratory (CNL) is a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) supported psychophysiology lab. This lab conducts substance use research that integrates the conceptual models and methods of psychology, neuroscience, physiology, and advanced quantitative strategies. Ongoing research focuses on cardiovascular signaling to understand the relationships between alcohol and other drug use behaviors, cognition, emotional regulation, and brain activity. The lab provides team science training for undergraduate and graduate students, post-baccalaureate research assistants, postdoctoral fellows, and early career faculty.

The Cardiovascular Stress Reactivity Lab focuses on how recreational alcohol and cannabis use taxes human physiological systems and undermines health. By considering substance use as a physiological stressor, we liken it to poor diet, insufficient sleep, and sedentary behavior, all of which force bodily systems away from their homeostatic set points in dose-dependent ways. Our ongoing studies use cardiovascular psychophysiology to measure how unhealthy behaviors ‘pile up’ to stress our heart and vessels.

The Exercise and Gastrointestinal Health Laboratory is primarily focused on the microbiome, intestinal integrity and inflammation. Exercise can mediate systemic inflammation by enhancing intestinal integrity and favorably altering the gut microbes. The lab uses mouse models to determine the extent to which the microbes change in response to exercise. Research looks at how this protects the intestinal lining and down-regulates systemic inflammation to promote health and combat disease.

The primary focus of the Health Neuroscience Laboratory is on the role of exercise in promoting physiological, neurocognitive, and psychological resilience. The lab uses advanced psychophysiological techniques including impedance cardiography and electroencephalography to better understand acute and chronic adaptations to exercise, and how knowledge of these adaptations can be applied to intervention development. This work is helping to elucidate mechanisms underlying the effects of exercise on mental health states (e.g., anxiety and depression). A secondary focus is on correlates of youth and adult physical activity behaviors.

The primary focus of the Neuromotor Plasticity & Rehabilitation (NPR) lab is on pragmatic approaches to identify neuromuscular mechanisms of muscle weakness, physical function/mobility limitations, and fatigue with aging, injury, and neurodegenerative disease.

The Rutgers Applied Biomechanics Laboratory (RABL) has an intensive research focus on clinical biomechanics in rehabilitation settings. The lab uses advanced biomechanical techniques and equipment including 3-dimensional motion capture, force platforms, and electromyography to understand clinical needs for patient populations and to develop targeted interventions tailored to improving health related outcomes, primarily using augmented visual feedback.

The Rutgers Exercise, Aging, and Brain Health Laboratory utilizes accelerometers and energy expenditure measurements to explore how physical activity behaviors and physiological factors influence cognitive function and the pathophysiological aspects of Alzheimer's disease. The lab employs various neuroimaging techniques to identify the neurological pathways through which physical activity and exercise support the maintenance of cognitive health in later life.

The Human Performance Laboratory seeks to understand determinants of exercise performance across diverse environments and populations. The lab integrates physiology, psychology, and neuroscience with advanced measurement and quantitative tools to characterize performance trajectories and develop interventions to improve long-term performance outcomes. One ongoing project is characterizing factors that influence the trajectories of running performance from high school through college. Another line of research focuses on the cardiovascular responses to respiratory manipulations.

The Rutgers Sleep Lab develops and implements effective lifestyle modification interventions related to sleep in diverse at-risk populations to promote health and wellness. Research methods utilized by the Rutgers Sleep Lab include observational studies, experiments and behavioral interventions in adolescents and young-adults.