The 6th Congress of Exercise and Sport Sciences

An Omics Approach to Understanding the Health Benefits of Exercise in Children: A New Era of Research and Clinical Practice

Shlomit Radom-Aizik
Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, USA

The beneficial effects of physical activity are well documented, yet the mechanisms by which physical activity prevents disease and improves health outcomes are poorly understood. Because of this, we have yet to optimize the use of exercise in health and disease.

Since the process of mapping and sequencing the human genome began, new technologies have made it possible to obtain a huge number of molecular measurements within a tissue or cell and facilitated the development of omics research (transcriptomics, genomics, metabolomics, lipidomics, and epigenomics). These omics technologies can be applied to a biological system of interest to obtain a snapshot of the underlying biology at a resolution that has never before been possible.

The NIH recently launched a new and exciting initiative: MoTrPAC, Molecular Transducer of Physical Activity Consortium, the largest ($200M) NIH investment in exercise research. The overall goal of this U.S. national project is to generate a map of molecular responses to physical activity and exercise using omics technologies. The University of California Irvine Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center is the sole pediatric center out of seven clinical centers across the U.S. The Center recruits children (10-17y/o) from diverse racial and ethnic groups with a goal to map the molecular mechanisms through which exercise benefits health. Low- and highly-active participants perform an acute bout of endurance exercise with blood collection before, 20- and 40-min during exercise and 10 min, 0.5 h and 3.5 h into recovery. A subgroup of low active participants repeats the assessment following 12 weeks of a supervised endurance training program. This research will lay the foundation for a new era in which we can harness the molecular pathways of the exercise response to improve health across the lifespan.

Shlomit Radom-Aizik
Shlomit Radom-Aizik
University of California Irvine








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