Source: Carl Ade, cade@k-state.edu

Friday, May 8, 2009

K-STATE DOCTORAL STUDENT RECEIVES RESEARCH AWARD FROM NATIONAL SPACE BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

MANHATTAN -- A Kansas State University graduate student has received the 2009 National Space Biomedical Research Institute's Gravitational Physiology Award for Young Investigators.

Carl J. Ade, a doctoral student in physiology, Salina, received the honor at the recent awards and business meeting of the American Physiological Society's Environmental and Exercise Physiology Section. The award recognizes the best research abstract submitted in the pre-doctoral category. The research must be related to gravitational physiology and relevant to the institute's mission of addressing the human health risks related to long-duration spaceflight.

Ade's winning abstract was "Influence of negative hydrostatic columns and central fluid shift via 6-degree head-down tilt posture on cardiovascular performance."

"The aim of the entire project was to examine the influence of a negative hydrostatic column via a negative 6-degree head-down tilt exercise on cardiovascular performance, and to determine if the head-down tilt posture stimulates greater cardiovascular adaptations during exercise training compared to being upright," Ade said.

For the project, subjects performed cycle exercise tests in an upright or a head-down-tilt position, while measurements of oxygen consumption, cardiac output and heart rate were taken, Ade said. A second group of subjects were randomly assigned to endurance train on a cycle ergometer in either the upright or head-down-tilt position for a four-week period, with several cardiovascular measurements performed post-training.

"Results demonstrated that a minus 6-degree head-down-tilt posture has a significant influence on how the body reacts to exercise and endurance training," Ade said.

Ade works in K-State's Human Exercise Physiology Lab with Thomas Barstow, professor of kinesiology and his doctoral adviser, and in the Cardiovascular and Thermal Physiology Lab with Brett Wong, assistant professor of kinesiology.

The son of Steve and Lee Ann Ade, also of Salina, Ade has a bachelor's degree in biology from Kansas Wesleyan University and a master's degree in kinesiology from K-State. He plans to finish his doctoral degree in 2011 and would like to continue research focused on improving human space flight and to teach human physiology at the college level.