The full version of the annual report can

be found atwww.kin.ucalgary.ca/hpl

Annual Report 2012 - Highlights Roger Jackson Centre for Health and Wellness Research

Human Performance Laboratory

Sport MedicineCentre

but often is associated with intangibles that are hard to capture and often impossible to quantify.One such intangible is the undergraduate, high-school, and national and international exchange students visiting our centre and contributing substantially to our research efforts. They are exposed to world-class facilities, a core of senior research associates, graduate trainees and professors with a wealth of knowledge and unique skills, and a set-ting of high expectations. In 2012, we hosted an open house attended by 450 high school students and their science teachers and subjected them to hands-on experiences. Over 60 undergraduate students did research projects in our centre this past year; projects typi-cally lasting from 2-6 months, many of them resulting in presentations and publications, some of them winning research awards locally and at national scientific conferences. This number does not include undergraduates that were doing research as part of their course work, which would roughly double that number. In addition, in 2012, we hosted over 20 international exchange students, typically for 4-12 months, from around the globe: Iran, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, Germany, United States, and many other countries.The newly developed strategic plan for learning and the “Eyes High” vision of the Uni-versity of Calgary advocate excellence in undergraduate education, experiential learning possibilities and exposure to exceptional research opportunities early in the undergrad-uate career. We have embraced these principles for the past three decades and will con-tinue to expand our experiential learning experiences for high-school and undergraduate students nationally and internationally. The opportunities are endless, and they benefit not only these young and aspiring scientists but also the centre through an influx of fresh ideas, unlimited enthusiasm and boundless energy.We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who support our centre philosophically, financially and with their work and ideas, and specifically those, who support the high-school and undergraduate trainees in their work with us. A special thank you to our families and friends, the generous support of granting agencies, phi-lanthropists, and private organizations, and the tremendous support from our academic family, The University of Calgary and the Faculty of Kinesiology.

Cy Frank Walter Herzog Benno M. Nigg

The Roger Jackson Centre for Health and Wellness Research (formerly the Human Performance Lab and the Sports Medicine Centre), has been acknowledged for its cutting edge research, its graduate and postdoc-toral training programs, and its leadership in national and internation-al scientific societies. The success and impact of the centre has been well documented in terms of scientific contributions, H-factors, cita-tion indices, scientific recognitions, prizes and awards. And although the success of a research lab can be quantified with numbers, factors and indices, the root cause of the success does not lie in these numbers,

The Year

2012

International RecognitionThe Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre has received national and international recognition for the past decade and has established a reputation for research excellence and knowledge translation. This past year, the efforts of the centre were acknowledged in a formal ceremony held at the U of Calgary campus recognizing the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre as one of the four “Centres of Excellence in Research in Injury Prevention in Sport” by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This recognition was associated with renewed support from the IOC until

2016. In a community outreach effort, a program of research “The Alberta Program in Sport and Recreational Injury Prevention” is being established to facilitate ongoing collaborations provincially, nationally and internationally with a significant focus on community stakeholder engagement. Also new this year is an expansion in the area of sport concussion by establishing a formal partnership with the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and the promise of adding a faculty member primarily devoted to concussion research.

Mechanics Inside Joints

Our research group focuses on understanding rela-tions amongst joint structure, function, and neuromo-tor control, specifically in the areas of knee joint injury, cartilage degeneration, and scoliosis. To quantify the contribution of knee joint structures to passive knee joint stability, work on developing an in vivo knee lax-ity assessment tool (based on MR imaging and a nu-merical model) has progressed. An in vitro experimen-tal validation revealed MR-based displacements and stiffness values were in close agreement with direct experimental measurements. To better understand the function of the menisci in the knee, we have imple-mented an integrated approach including mechanical, structural and biochemical analyses. We identified experimentally that meniscal samples swell significantly under iso-osmotic conditions. The osmolarity independent swelling, results in greatly altered mechanical properties and indicates that the menisci are a pre-stressed structure. For the first time, optical projection tomography (OPT), a novel imaging modality was successfully used to examine connective tissues. With OPT, the highly complex, three- dimensional collagen matrix organization within the meniscus, as well as blood vessel organization, was revealed. To provide a quantitative assessment of the 3D deformity in scoliosis, our correlations of 3D spine radiographic measures with topographic surface mapping are yielding promising results. With a focus on developing a low cost clinical tool for detecting scoliosis progression with reduced radiation exposure, substantial progress was made in developing and evaluating the system components, confirming the strong relationship between ST indices and spine deformity progression, and optimizing approaches for clinical implementation.

Awards and HonorsMembers of the Human Performance Laboratory and the Sport Medicine Centre that were honored for their scientific contributions:

Internal Awards

Michael Duvall

Walter Herzog

Curtis Hughey

Appaji Panchangam

Raylene Reimer

Maria Yamamoto

Winner of the Institute of Engineering and Technology Competition (Americas Competition)

Killam Career Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Supervision

Izaak Walton Killam Ph.D. Studentship

Winner of the Postdoctoral Young Investigator Award, Canadian Society of Biomechanics

Centrum Foundation New Scientist Award for Outstanding Research in Nutrition – Canadian Nutrition Society

Winner of the Masters Young Investigator Award, Canadian Society of Biomechanics

External Awards

Carolyn Emery

Azim Jinha

Bernd Friesenbichler

David Smith

Carolyn Emery &Willem Meeuwisse

RJC Faculty Award

RJC Staff Award

RJC Student Award

Teaching Excellence AwardFaculty of Kinesiology

Research Excellence AwardFaculty of Kinesiology

Special Appointments

Steve Boyd

P. Tish Doyle-Baker

Wayne Giles

Joan Vickers

Bob and Nola Rintoul Chair in Bone and Joint Research

President of the Alberta Public Health Association

Editorial Board for the Journal of Physiology

Advisory Editor, Cognitive Processing, International Quarterly of Cognitive Science, Springer Publishing

SupportOur work was financially supported by many different sources, the University of Calgary, Government Grants, Industry and Non-Government Sources and External Student Support. The corresponding amounts in Canadian dollars were:

University

Gov. Grants

Industry

Ext. Students

Total

$2.9M

$3.9M

$1.6M

$1.7M

$10.1M

29%

38%

16%

17%

For 2012, the average support per faculty member was about $379,838. We would like to thank all supporters of our work, the Faculty of Kinesiology, the University of Calgary, all Granting Agencies, Industry and our major sponsor, Engineered Air.

Healthy AgingThe main thrust of activity in 2012 has been on-going recruitment of sub-jects at the Knee Osteoarthritis clinic to establish a knee OA database with unique information. In collaboration with physicians from the Calgary metropolitan area, we continue to recruit knee osteoarthritis subjects for the Alberta Innovates Health Solutions Team Osteoarthritis project’s da-tabase. We collect blood and synovial samples from patients with knee osteoarthritis for analysis by researchers in Kinesiology, Medicine, Sci-ence and Engineering. These blood samples are analyzed for early mark-ers of osteoarthritis and the synovial samples are examined for their abil-ity to lubricate the joints effectively. In parallel, our data bank will contain all patient information, biomechanical and strength measurements, and clinical indicators of pain and functional disability progression.

Helping OlympiansOur group focuses on questions related to human locomo-tion, sport performance and sport injury biomechanics. En-hancement of sport performance includes the design, devel-opment and testing of functional sport equipment with a goal of tuning the properties of the equipment to specific athlete characteristics in order to maximize individual performance and minimize the risk of injury. Performance research in-volves developing a basic understanding of the detailed me-chanics of human movement during athletic movements. The goal is to determine the mechanical factors dictating an ath-lete’s performance and how performance can be improved by manipulating these particular factors. In 2012 we saw our research implemented in track and field footwear and appar-el used during the London Olympics, as well as basketball, football and soccer footwear.

The Neglected GiantTitin is the third most abundant protein in striated muscle, and is the biggest protein in the human body with a molecular weight ranging from 3.0-3.8MDa. We discovered previously that titin can change its stiffness upon muscle activation, thereby affecting the forces in actively (compared to passively) stretched muscles. This past year, we showed that titin properties can be studied well, in intact myofibril preparations, and we were able to discern when the

different molecular springs of titin were engaged in passive stretching of muscles. Most importantly, we discovered that titin can work essentially as an elastic spring (thereby minimizing energy loss in cyclic movements), if folding and unfolding of the so-called Ig domains was prevented in cyclic movements. Most excitingly, we found that the range of “elastic” behavior of titin could be modified, thereby allowing for essentially elastic behavior of titin at any muscle length. Therefore, we propose that titin can not only regulate active force, as we have shown previously, but can also change its range of elastic behavior, thereby minimizing loss of energy in stretch-shortening cycles independent of sarcomere lengths.

Healthy BonesOur research group focuses on the use of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) for the study of bone disease and joint injury. The work in the Bone Imaging Laboratory involves clinical mea-surements of 3D bone architecture in patients. We are studying patients receiving experimental treatments for osteoporosis, and developing a database of bone quality in a population based study. In addition to our clinical work in the RJC, we also are doing pre-clinical research using in vivo micro-CT equipment for studying bone quality in models of osteoporosis. The pre-clinical work in the hospital and the clinical work in the research labs allows for bench-to-bedside application of our research findings.