There are two kinesiology laboratories at UAB. The Exercise Physiology Laboratory and the Exercise and Nutritional Physiology Laboratory are used for data collection, training, and scientific inquiry and are open to kinesiology graduate students and undergraduate honors students. Students use the laboratories for their theses, honors projects, internships, and field experiences.
The Exercise Physiology Laboratory
Director: Gordon Fisher, Ph.D.
The new 1,100 square-foot lab features more than 800 pounds of free weights along with high-tech equipment that includes arm crank and cycle ergometers, computerized treadmills, and skinfold calipers and bioelectrical impedance scales for measuring body composition. The lab is also equipped with a metabolic cart to measure energy expenditure during rest and exercise, portable handheld spirometry for pulmonary assessments, electrocardiography to analyze heart rhythms, and an electromyography system and force platform for the assessment of motor unit activation during muscle contraction.
The Exercise and Nutritional Physiology Laboratory
Co-Directors: Gordon Fisher, Ph.D. and Eric P. Plaisance, Ph.D.
This 900 square-foot facility, located in the Shelby Biomedical Research Building, is equipped for the study of metabolic and cardiovascular regulation in skeletal muscle, adipose, and liver tissue. Dr. Fisher's research focuses on the role of reactive oxygen species, mitochondrial dysfunction, and markers of inflammation in the pathogenesis of chronic metabolic diseases associated with obesity. Dr. Plaisance's research focuses on the dysregulation of lipid metabolism during positive energy balance (weight gain) and the impact of novel dietary and exercise interventions on the remodeling of lipid metabolism between tissues.
Our students have access to Oroboros Oxygraph-2k with DatLab software, a FluoroMate FS-2 Fluorescence Spectrometer, a BioRad Chemidoc XP digital imaging system, a SpectraMax M3 Microplate reader, a Corning Digital Microplate Shaker, a dissecting microscope (Stemi 2000), a Nanodrop Lite Spectrophotometer, a thermocycler (BioRad I-cycler), a 96-well quantitative real-time PRC unit (BioRad), BioRad power supplies, BioRad wet transfer cells, BioRad gel boxes, two PowerGen tissue homogenizers, cell and tissue culture, digital darkroom imaging, analytical balance scale, shakers/rotators, a minus 80°C and a minus 20°C freezer, two 4°C refrigerators, a Variable Flow Peristaltic Pump, and all other equipment necessary for immunoblotting and mRNA expression studies.