Over $300,000 of research equipment is available to graduate students engaging in Master’s thesis projects and independent studies. Moreover, the MUEPL is vital to convert knowledge into skill in both the undergraduate and graduate programs by providing access to “state of the art” equipment for data collection and analysis.

student getting their blood pressure taken by a professor

Clinical Exercise Lab

The Marshall University Clinical Exercise Laboratory (MUCEL) is one of the few such laboratories in the country that hosts on-site clinical programs to provide undergraduate and graduate students with hands-on opportunities to work in the clinical setting. This means that students learn to develop exercise prescriptions, take blood pressures, read electrocardiograms, check blood glucose readings, and make appropriate assessments with real patients within a real world clinical setting. For example, students work with members of the community, and patients with various chronic diseases and conditions including diabetes, cardiac patients, overweight and obese patients, etc. by directly applying their knowledge gained in the classrooms.

The MUCEL offers various clinical programs through collaborative relationships with the Department of Exercise Science, Marshall Health, Marshall University School of Medicine and Cabell Huntington Hospital and others. This permits students to obtain valuable health promotion, disease prevention, and hands on clinical experience with medical profile development, case study analysis, and client/patient management in the cardiac rehabilitation and sports medicine settings.

Long established programs include:

The Diabetes Exercise Center: Affiliated with the Diabetes Treatment Center of Cabell Huntington Hospital and Marshall University Medical Center (ADA certified)
Phase II and Phase III/Long-Term Cardiac Rehabilitation Program (AACVPR certified)
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program in The Center for Lung Health (AACVPR certified)
– These programs require mature and responsible behavior in managing patients with multiple medical disorders.

Graduates are presently or have been on staff at many centers across the region and the country, including The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Duke University Medical Center, Ohio State University Medical Center, Southern Ohio Medical Center, Dayton Heart Center, Wheeling Area Medical Center, Charleston Area Medical Center, Cabell Huntington Hospital, Point Pleasant Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital and many other regional centers. Additionally, many of our graduates have achieved success within Pfizer, Merck, Aventis, Medtronic, and others in the pharmaceutical and pacemaker industries. Marshall University Exercise Science graduates have also become pharmacists, physician assistants and completed medical school to become physicians. Some have become established scientists, others have assumed significant responsibilities as administrators in the clinical setting.

student in a piece of exercise science equipment

Muscle Physiology Lab

The Muscle Physiology Laboratory is a research laboratory investigating skeletal muscle morphology.

The skeletal muscle properties vary depending on genetics and types and amount of activities as well as affected by diseases and drugs. A piece of skeletal muscle is sampled, frozen, sliced in very thin (6 mm thickness), and stained with chemicals. Under a light microscope, a stained muscle sample is analyzed for:

Size (diameter)
Types of muscle (slow, fast, or hybrid)
Abnormalities in shape or contents
Adult stem cell activity
Capillary density, and
Damage.

These properties can be changed by 8 weeks of training. We study healthy human skeletal muscle from volunteer participants, as well as tissue from rats and mice.

Currently, the lab is looking into the muscle damage related to cholesterol-lowering medicine (statin) in humans, and the muscle size and type changes by simulated microgravity (for space flight to Mars) using rats.

The Muscle Physiology Laboratory is under the direction of Dr. Kumika Toma. For more information on her research, contact tomak@marshall.edu or call 304-696-2651.