Advancing the science of human movement is at the forefront of what we do. Browse the latest research published by members of our center, including visiting scholars, faculty and students.

Current Projects

Bone Adaptation in Healthy and Injured Runners

Bone stress injuries affect a disproportionate number of runners and occur when there’s an imbalance between training load and the bone’s ability to adapt to training stressors. Our studies investigate the specific factors that may contribute to these bone stress injuries. Areas we investigate can include an individual’s running biomechanics, blood biomarkers, wearable data and nutrition intake. Projects like our first time marathon runner study and bone stress injury study observe changes in both healthy and injured runners, allowing us to determine the difference between positive and negative adaptations and the associated risk factors. The findings related to this research will help runners in Eugene and beyond stay healthy for the long run.

Soccer Cleat Study

Market-available soccer footwear is historically designed according to male athlete mechanics. With known sex differences in movement patterns, joint moments, and joint loading between sex, it should not be assumed that the female body is able to withstand the same amount of rotational and translational traction as do males.

We think that soccer cleats could play a key role in moderating female athletes’ exposure to torsional injury mechanisms, such as those related to ACL injury. Ongoing research looks into to how individual traction characteristics can be best suited to the lower extremity mechanics of the female athlete, inclusive of stud length, stud shape and stud positioning. Research has led to the design of a unique traction plate for the female soccer player, with the intent of reducing knee loading and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

Environmental Stress and Adaptation

Exercise and the environment (heat, cold, and altitude), together or separate, cause challenges to the body that require adjustments on the cellular and whole-body level. Our research focus is to uncover how humans respond and adapt to these stressors. We study individuals ranging from clinical populations (like hypertension or polycystic ovarian syndrome) to athletes as they all offer a unique perspective of how the body responds. We gain insight into how these stressors can be used to improve quality of life and health span, update safety guidelines, enhance recovery, or optimize athletic performance. Our discoveries allow researchers, clinicians, coaches, and ourselves to better the lives of our community.

Exercise, Allergies, and Histamine

Athletes routinely train and compete at high intensities outdoors, increasing exposure to environmental allergens. Greater exposure to allergens can result in allergies, decreasing quality of life and exercise performance. Many athletes experience seasonal allergies, which are commonly treated with antihistamines blocking the actions of histamine and reducing allergy symptoms. However, histamine is released in exercising skeletal muscle and is important to many exercise responses. Blocking its actions can decrease the health benefits of exercise, worsen recovery from an exercise bout, and impair exercise performance. We are investigating the impact of antihistamines on physiological responses to exercise and how that relates to exercise performance and recovery. We hope to better understand histamine’s role during and following exercise and provide insight into treating allergies for athletes and habitual exercisers alike.