Cydne Perry, PhD, is comparing how diets based on different types of protein impact health in older adults.
Cydne Perry, PhD
Her study, “The Effects of Dietary Beta-Alanine and Carnosine from Beef Intake on Muscle Fatigue in Older Adults,” is a randomized controlled feeding and diet intervention study with a crossover design. The participants are between the ages of 60 and 80 years old. For eight weeks, the participants consume healthy diets with either beef or vegetable protein. Then, after a break, they spend another eight weeks consuming the other protein type. With the exception of the two-week break, every meal that the participants eat for the duration of the study—breakfast, lunch and dinner—is prepared and provided by Perry’s study.
At intervals, the participants undergo testing to measure their body composition and physical strength.
“We’re looking to see how different protein types impact those outcomes,” said Perry, who is an assistant professor at the School of Public Health. She expects the study to conclude in 2025.
This kind of study, which requires significant resources, facilities and staff, is “a whole lot of work and very labor intensive,” said Perry.
When Perry began her study, there was no clinical research center on the Bloomington campus. It was not possible to conduct a study like Perry’s all in one place.
But then the Nutrition and Exercise Research Center was established. It’s a clinical research center available to researchers who, like Perry, study interventions related to diet and physical activity. Perry’s study was the first to formally engage the center’s services and make it operational.
“We now have the equipment, space, and staff to complete rigorous studies in nutrition [and exercise] science at IU Bloomington,” said Perry. “That didn’t exist before, and this is important to move the field forward.”
Meeting the need
The Nutrition and Exercise Research Center (NERC) is located in the School of Public Health building on the IU Bloomington campus.
Nana Gletsu Miller, PhD
Co-Director Nana Gletsu Miller, PhD, leads the nutrition side of the center. She is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Health Science in the School of Public Health.
She came to IU Bloomington from Purdue University five years ago because she wanted to work within a school of public health setting, she said. But IU Bloomington lacked the facilities and resources to conduct rigorous clinical nutrition studies like those at Purdue, which has a highly regarded and well-resourced Clinical Research Center.
Gletsu Miller had a vision for establishing something similar in Bloomington. She and her team “spent three to four years convincing leadership, and making plans, and renovating existing space to be what it is now,” she said, “and we launched the nutrition side of the center in fall 2023.”
The nutrition facilities consists of several clinical suites, a metabolic kitchen, and a lavatory. It is staffed by a kitchen manager, a bionutritionist who helps with diet design, and nursing team that provides clinical services.
“Led by a laboratory manager, we also offer specimen collection, storage and other equipment to researchers,” said Gletsu Miller.
The center meets a growing need for these facilities in Bloomington, she said.
“IU Bloomington has been recruiting faculty in the exercise and nutrition space, so there are many new faculty here who do clinical trials in nutrition or exercise physiology,” she said. “They need a space to make, store, or deliver food to participants. Now we can offer all of that in one place.”
Providing resources, boosting productivity
Zac Schalder, PhD
While Gletsu Miller was developing the idea for establishing a clinical research center focused on nutrition, Zac Schlader, PhD, sought her out to collaborate on a study.
“I’m an exercise physiologist, and so a lot of what I do has a nutritional component,” said Schlader, who is an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology.
During their conversations, Schlader and Gletsu Miller recognized the “great synergy” and clinical overlap between their respective fields, Schlader said, and so together, they pursued their idea of establishing an exercise side of the center.
“It made sense to boost research productivity and provide resources for the research-focused faculty in the School of Public Health,” Schlader said.
The associate dean of research at IU Bloomington agreed—and the exercise facilities opened in mid-2024 with Schlader as co-director.
Now investigators using the center can simulate various environmental conditions, such as heat or cold, and test the impact of those conditions on physical activity.
“In addition to making meals and conducting feeding studies, we also have tremendous ability to measure metabolism,” Schlader said. “We can track how many calories people are burning under different circumstances. This provides a well-rounded ability to study the metabolic side of human functioning and human health.”
Currently, while serving as co-director, Schlader is also using both sides of the center for an ongoing study. He is exploring how different sweeteners in commercial sports drinks—such as Gatorade, which uses sucrose, and Powerade, which uses high fructose corn syrup—impact the kidneys in people who consume these drinks to replace water from sweat loss, particularly if working outside in the heat.
“The idea is that high fructose corn syrup is what challenges the kidneys,” he explained.
There are 12 participants enrolled in Schlader’s study. In the environmental chamber, Schlader simulates a hot and humid environment—similar to what you might experience on a summer day in the southeastern United States, he said. Then he asks participants to do physical tasks that are similar to the manual labor that a construction worker or other outdoor laborer might do, such as walking, rowing, and other upper body work.
To rehydrate, the participants drink one of two beverages created by the kitchen staff, which have been matched to the dense and caloric contents of commercial sports drinks. With the help of the Analyte Lab in the Translation Core, Schlader and his team then take blood and urine samples to test the impact of the drinks on the participants’ kidneys.
“There’s no way we could run this study as a double-blind randomized control trial without the nutrition team,” he said. “Conducting all this work—in the kitchen, in the chambers—at the center gives us a level of control that we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
Room to grow
NERC’s placement on the IU Bloomington campus is a boon for faculty there. However, use of the center won’t be limited to them. Gletsu Miller and Schlader intend to make the center an Indiana CTSI-designated core facility, which means that faculty affiliated with any Indiana University, Purdue, or University of Notre Dame campus will be eligible to use it.
Eventually, Gletsu Miller says, she also hopes the center will provide services to industry colleagues, such as those working in the pharmaceutical industry.
“We’re working toward being attractive to external users,” she said.
Currently there are four studies taking place in the center. Gletsu Miller said their capacity depends on the types of services it’s providing.
“We generally meet with investigators to understand their needs and then determine the feasibility of providing the services needed,” she said.
Those interested in learning more about the facilities or exploring the possibility of engaging a study there should contact Gletsu Miller or Schlader.
