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The Metabolic and Exercise Physiology Lab employs a holistic approach to research, combining RMR and CPET with behavioral assessments to capture how lifestyle factors shape health. 

This integrated model lets researchers explore how biological measures relate to daily behavior, revealing how lifestyle, environment, and physiology intertwine.

By examining these interactions, such as the impact of sleep on metabolism or stress on exercise capacity, the MEPL builds a more complete picture of human health and  produces research that is relevant to students, athletes, and the broader community.

Highlights of research projects:

Beyond poor sleep: PSQI-derived sleep phenotypes and metabolic physiology in young adults — fall 2025, concluded 

Sleep is often summarized as “good” or “poor,” but the way people experience poor sleep can differ widely. Some students may sleep too little, others may struggle to fall asleep, wake frequently, or feel tired during the day despite spending enough time in bed. This study examined whether sleep quality in young adults is better understood through distinct patterns of sleep burden rather than a single total score. Using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index alongside objective metabolic physiology measures, including resting metabolic testing and substrate-use markers such as respiratory quotient, fat oxidation, and carbohydrate oxidation, the project explored whether patterns such as short sleep, difficulty initiating sleep, nighttime disturbance, and daytime dysfunction clustered into meaningful sleep-burden profile. By connecting validated sleep assessment with metabolic data, this study asked: How can the different ways students experience poor sleep help us better understand metabolism, recovery, and early physiological health in young adults? 

Focus areas: sleep quality, PSQI-derived sleep profiles, resting metabolism, respiratory quotient, fat oxidation, carbohydrate oxidation, metabolic physiology, young adult health 

Metabolic health and well-being: Stress, resilience, and dietary practices — fall 2025, concluded 

Health isn't shaped by physiology alone, but also by stress, food access, culture, resilience, daily choices, and the environments students move through. This study examined how psychosocial and social determinants of health relate to objective metabolic and aerobic performance outcomes. Participants completed metabolic testing alongside validated assessments of perceived stress, resilience, food security, dietary practices, physical activity, and demographic factors. The project aimed to understand how real-life pressures and protective factors may appear in the body through differences in metabolism, aerobic capacity, and physiological response. This study reflects MEPL’s broader mission to study health as lived experience, not just a laboratory measurement. 

Focus areas: stress, resilience, food security, dietary practices, social determinants of health, metabolic function

Caffeine consumption, anxiety, gut dysbiosis risk, and metabolic performance in young adults — spring 2026, concluded

Caffeine is part of daily survival for many college students. This study examined what happens when caffeine habits intersect with anxiety, sleep disruption, gut health risk, diet quality, and physiological performance. The project explored the relationship between caffeine intake and the gut-brain axis by combining metabolic testing with validated assessments of anxiety, sleep quality, gastrointestinal symptoms, diet quality, and caffeine consumption. Rather than studying caffeine as an isolated behavior, the study examined it as part of a larger pattern of student life involving energy, stress, focus, digestion, recovery, and performance. This project is especially relevant to young adults because it investigates behaviors that are common, normalized, and often overlooked, but may have measurable physiological significance.

Focus areas: caffeine use, anxiety, sleep, gut dysbiosis risk, diet quality, metabolic performance

A pill to keep going: Early biological signals of renal strain in young adults — launching in summer 2026

This community-based study examins how young adults' everyday coping behaviors affect the body before disease is visible. The project investigates associations among over-the-counter medication use, hydration behaviors, dietary protein intake, stress, food security, physical activity, and early physiological indicators of kidney strain. Using noninvasive measures such as anthropometrics, blood pressure, and comprehensive urinalysis, the study aims to identify early biological signals that may be linked to common behaviors among adolescents and young adults. Beyond mapping baseline urinary health metrics like pH, glucose, and specific gravity, the research focuses on subclinical microalbuminuria by measuring urine albumin and creatinine levels. By focusing on prevention and early detection, this project moves beyond the idea that kidney health is only a concern later in life. It asks how hydration, medication use, stress, and nutrition may begin shaping renal physiology much earlier than expected.

Focus areas: renal strain, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio, physiological pH and glucose monitoring, hydration dynamics, over-the-counter medication use, dietary protein, stress, food security, community health

The study is currently recruiting young adult participants in the Broome County area. Please email hwsmetexe@binghamton.edu to determine eligibility. 

Menstrual cycle phase, metabolic function, and neuromuscular predictors of ACL injury in female collegiate athletes — launching in fall 2026

Female athletes experience ACL injuries at disproportionately high rates, yet many traditional models of performance and injury risk have not fully accounted for female physiology. This proposed collaboration with the University's Motion Analysis Research Laboratory (MARL) will examine how menstrual cycle phase may relate to metabolic function, aerobic capacity, hydration status, neuromuscular control, and biomechanical predictors of ACL injury risk. By combining metabolic testing with motion analysis, strength assessment, hydration measures, and validated survey instruments, this study seeks to build a more complete picture of female athlete performance and injury vulnerability. The project will treat hormonal variation, recovery, and female physiology as central research variables, and represents MEPL’s commitment to closing the female physiology gap and advancing a more precise, inclusive model of human performance science.

Focus areas: female physiology, menstrual cycle phase, ACL injury risk, hydration, metabolism, neuromuscular control, collegiate athletes

The study is currently recruiting female student-athletes at 91����. Please email hwsmetexe@binghamton.edu to determine eligibility.

Get involved with MEPL research

• 91���� undergraduate students interested in joining the MEPL research team may apply by emailing hwsmetexe@binghamton.edu with their name, major, class year, relevant experience, and research interests
• Faculty, departments, student organizations, and external partners interested in collaborating with the lab on studies of metabolism, exercise physiology, nutrition, sleep, stress, health behavior, student wellness, and community health initiatives should email hwsmetexe@binghamton.edu