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Research Studies
The physicians and scientists with the Pediatric Exercise & Genomics Research Center (PERC) are engaged in innovative, leading-edge research on how and why physical activity is essential to childhood health.
Ongoing PERC projects for 2016 include:
- The effects of exercise training on the immune system in children with asthma.
Lead researchers: Dan M. Cooper, MD, and Shlomit Radom-Aizik, PhD. - School-based exercise training program designed to improve asthma in children in an inner-city neighborhood.
Lead researcher: Kim Lu, MD. - Tele-exercise program for improving fitness in children with cystic fibrosis.
Lead researcher: Jen Jen Chen, MD. In collaboration with the Miller Children’s & Women's Hospital's Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Clinic. - The effect of exercise on the immune system genomic and epigenetic responses in children who have survived acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Lead researcher: Shlomit Radom-Aizik, PhD. In collaboration with the Hyundai Institute at CHOC Children’s.
- The effects of therapeutic dance on the body and mind of children with cerebral palsy.
Lead researcher: Kimberley D. Lakes, PhD. In collaboration with Children’s Cerebral Palsy Movement, UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts, CHOC Children’s Orthopaedic Institute, and Chapman University. - Exploring the mystery of human breath during exercise – a new frontier in biomedical research —focusing on development of noninvasive ways to measure the body’s metabolism during exercise.
Lead researchers: Hye-Won Shin, PhD and Dan M. Cooper, MD. In collaboration with the UC Irvine Atmospheric Chemistry Laboratory. - Exercise and blood biomarkers in obese children.
Lead researcher: Pietro Galassetti, MD, PhD. - Project BEGIN: Body Composition, Exercise, and Growth in Newborns. An assisted exercise research program to help premature babies strengthen bones and muscles.
Lead researcher: Dan M. Cooper, MD. - Re-inventing exercise testing in children — applying new technologies and analytic approaches to transforming how physicians gauge fitness in kids.
Lead researcher: Ronen Bar-Yoseph, MD. - Inflammation and physical activity during critical periods of development.
Lead researcher: Gregory R. Adams, PhD. - The impact of caregivers’ attitudes about exercise on child health.
Lead researchers: Candice Taylor Lucas, MD, Kimberley D. Lakes, PhD, and Dan M Cooper, MD. - The GREEN Project: Getting Residence Engaged in Exercise and Nutrition. Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) brings best education practices to the community to assist in improving community health.
Lead researcher: Frank Zaldivar, PhD. In collaboration with the UC Irvine Health PRIME-LC medical students and UC Irvine undergraduates from public health and biological sciences.
Ongoing 2016 collaborations
PERC’s distinguished child health researchers also engage in collaborative studies with exercise physiologists, behavioralists, biomedical engineers, computer scientists and other translational scientists here at UC Irvine Health and at universities around the world.
Collaborations include:
- iXercise: An immersive exergaming platform for re-habilitation targeting special needs children.
Lead researcher: Magda El Zarki, director of the Institute of Virtual Environments and Computer Games, Information and Computer Sciences, UC Irvine. - The effects of a physical exercise intervention on anxiety in underserved children with ASD.
Lead researcher: Jean Gehricke, PhD, Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders. - Breast tumor oxygenation during exercise.
Lead researcher: Bruce Tromberg, PhD, director of the UC Irvine Beckman Laser Institute. - Integrated resistance and aerobic exercise training with small compact exercise equipment.
Lead researchers: Lori L. Ploutz-Snyder, PhD, Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, Gregory R. Adams, PhD, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, UC Irvine School of Medicine. - Exercise training in adults with Pompe disease: the effects on pain, fatigue, and functioning.
Lead researcher: Virginia Kimonis, MD, Division of Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, UC Irvine School of Medicine. - The effect of exercise and beta-adrenergic blockade on the Immune system genomic response.
Lead researcher: Richard J Simpson, PhD, Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston. - Immune system genomic response to exercise in sickle cell patients.
Lead researcher: Robert Liem, MD, MS. director, Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program, Center for Cancer & Blood Disorders, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
PERC’s distinguished child health researchers also engage in collaborative studies with exercise physiologists, behavioralists, biomedical engineers, computer scientists and other translational scientists here at UC Irvine Health and at universities around the world.
Completed projects (2012-2015)
- Impact of exercise training on children with neural tube defects: an exploratory study
Lead researchers: Shlomit Radom-Aizik PhD, Dan M Cooper and Dr. Kimberly BeDell MD, Medical Director, Pediatric Rehabilitation at Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach. In collaboration with Melissa D'Eloia, Ph.D, CTRS, California State University Long Beach, Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies CSU Long Beach, and Robert Arnhold, Ph.D, Coordinator Adapted Physical Activity Program and director of the Center on Disability and Health, Slippery Rock University. - DNA methylation is altered in human skeletal muscle in response to exercise training
Lead researchers: Gregory Adams, Shlomit Radom-Aizik PhD and Fadia Haddad PhD. In collaboration with Eric Hoffman, PhD, Children's National Medical Center, George Washington University, Washington D.C. - The effect of an Ironman Triathlon on the immune system genomic response.
Lead researcher: Shlomit Radom-Aizik PhD. In collaboration with the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Exercise testing in children: definitions, data harmonization, and translational research
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