Influence of exercise and nutrition on human metabolism

I am interested in defining optimal strategies that incorporate exercise as a means to prevent obesity and Type 2 diabetes. As well, I seek to generate deeper mechanistic understanding to contribute to the underpinning evidence for the benefits of exercise in maintaining good health. Finally, I am interested in how nutrition can influence responses to exercise, be that for the improvement of sports performance, or in the optimisation of exercise for health.

To study these areas I use the most relevant experimental model, the human, and utilise a range of experimental approaches that enable detailed profiling of metabolic responses to exercise and nutrition intervention. This includes exercise testing, nutritional intervention, stable isotope tracer techniques, biological tissue/fluid collection and clinical and analytical chemistry including mass spectrometry.

My research efforts to date have been focussed on trying to understand why humans exhibit substantial inter-individual variability in their capacity to use fat as a fuel for exercise and also what the potential physiological and practical significance of this variability is. This has informed the development of several novel nutrition and exercise intervention strategies, which are currently under investigation, aimed at manipulating fat oxidation during exercise in order to ultimately produce improvements in metabolic health or physical performance.

If you are interested in the research focus described above, please consult the Funding Notes and feel free to contact me to discuss opportunities further.