Highly motivated students are encouraged to contact dkane@stfx.ca about potential research opportunities
Highly motivated students are encouraged to contact dkane@stfx.ca about potential research opportunities
Research Interests
Think back to the last time you quickly ascended a long flight of stairs, or otherwise exerted yourself. What happened? Why did it take time for your breathing and heart rate to return to baseline? Clearly, tasks of physical effort lead to acute physiological change. Some of these changes, repeated over time, can even result in an adaptive response, a training effect. Going beyond improvements in performance, per se, both the acute and chronic changes that occur with exercise are now recognized to constitute stimuli for the many collateral benefits of exercise to health. Repeated daily for a year, those same stairs would likely pose less of a challenge to ones physiology at the end of that year. The heart would pump blood more effectively, and the muscles would better resist fatigue. Much as a callous forms on bare feet, so does the body adapt to the tasks of physical effort. Nearly all the acute and chronic effects of exercise that manifest in the health benefits increasingly appreciated by the medical establishment, occur to a large degree at the cellular/molecular level. My primary research interests are focused on elucidating these mechanisms accounting for the biological consequences and health benefits of exercise.
In the mitochondrial physiology lab at StFX, we investigate human kinetics at the cellular level. Major ongoing projects include the study of energy metabolism in muscle. Once considered the dead-end product of anaerobic metabolism, lactate is now recognized as a versatile metabolite whose fate is integrated into the demands of the organism. The notion of mitochondrial lactate oxidation, however, has remained somewhat controversial, particularly with regard to skeletal muscle. We are attempting to help clarify this issue (see recent publication). I also have applied research interests, which include the physiology of rowing and cycling. The physiological demands placed on competitive athletes are amazing. Even recreational athletes may experience profound adaptations from the sport. Improving the training of competitive athletes, and investigating the health-related benefits of exercise on casual participants are aims of this research area.
Aerobic capacity testing in the exercise physiology lab with Emma Aucoin and Dr. Jennifer Jamieson.
Mitch George and Emma Aucoin describe their research to former Minister of State (Science and Technology) Ed Holder. Photo courtesy of Cindy McInnes.
Recent Publications
Full listing at GoogleScholar
Underlined name = trainee or co-trainee
Support
This research would not be possible without support from the following: