In our State-of-the-Art Spaces series, we’ll show you academic spaces all over campus that boast unique features and technology that enhance learning, allow students to engage in hands-on experiences, and more. Get an inside look at Colorado State’s state-of-the-art spaces now.

Perhaps housing some of Colorado State’s coolest advanced technology, the Human Performance Clinical Research Lab boasts a whopping 17,000 square feet of learning space. Here, you’ll find a wide array of students studying health and exercise science, healthy aging, disease prevention, mobility, biomedical engineering, and more. This space is designed to advance human health and well-being through classes and research.

Sophisticated equipment and technology

Students, researchers, and faculty use an array of equipment in the lab, including tools that assess heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital functions during stress tests with a patient walking on a treadmill or riding on a stationary bike (as seen in rehabilitation settings).

The lab also includes a host of advanced technologies for research. You’ll find virtual-reality driving simulators and wearable sensors to assess movement and older adults’ ability to drive. Human walking and running are assessed using force plates in the floor, with a particular focus on the interactions between footwear and playing surfaces (such as artificial turf) with goals to support optimal sports performance, injury prevention, and recovery.

You’ll also find students and faculty working with a split-belt treadmill, motion sensors, and trans-cranial magnetic stimulation tools to measure how the brain and muscles interact (with a particular focus on therapies for people with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s). Additionally, the lab features two sleep labs for inpatient studies, a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometer to measure bone density and body composition, and an environmental chamber that is used to simulate high-altitude conditions. There’s also sophisticated equipment used to study muscle biochemistry, movement of cell signals through the blood, synthesis of proteins, and more!

Community impact and practical experience

The Human Performance Clinical Research Lab is also home to outreach programs that support the community, which allows CSU students to make a direct impact on the health and well-being of others while gaining practical experience.

The Heart Disease Prevention Program is focused on first responders and is open to the entire CSU community, while the FitCancer program provides guided exercise programs for anyone with a cancer diagnosis. The lab is also in a partnership with United States Army and Air Force ROTC to enhance members’ physical and mental readiness.

Undergraduate students can often participate in this research with faculty mentors, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate students. Building experience in a lab can be a great way to prepare yourself for medical school or other graduate degrees that lead to jobs in occupational or physical therapy, physician assistance, or nursing. Students can also work toward continuing on at CSU with an M.S. Health and Exercise Science or Ph.D. in Human Bioenergetics.

Want to see it in person? Sign up to take a tour with the College of Health and Human Sciences and request a Health and Exercise Science info session.

• Who studies here: Primarily, the lab hosts students engaged in undergraduate and graduate research from the Health and Exercise Science major (both the Health Promotion and Sports Medicine concentrations), as well as students who study aging, disease prevention, mobility, and beyond. You’ll also find students from majors like Food Science and Human Nutrition, Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, and more. 
• Some classes that meet here: Most of the classes in the lab are upper-division undergraduate or graduate-level courses, including Electrocardiography, various independent study courses to do Health and Exercise Science research, Honors thesis courses, practicums, and internships.
• Built: 2000, with expansions most recently in 2020
• Location: Next to Moby Arena on the west side of campus. See map.