Research
These are the ongoing research projects in our team!
STOP-EM: Strength Training for Osteoporosis Prevention in Early Menopause
This study is funded by the University of Calgary VPR Catalyst Grant, Cumming School of Medicine Clinical Seed Fund, McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health and Alberta Health Services Bone and Joint Strategic Clinical Network Translational Impact Grant, and McCaig Institute Clinician-Scientist Collaboration Seed Grant. Co-Investigators include: Drs. Emma Billington and Lauren Burt.
We want to learn how feasible and effective a high-intensity resistance training program is for preventing bone loss during peri- and early menopause.
Follow this link if you are curious to learn more.
G-Val
This project is supported by an NSERC Discovery Award.
We want to determine the best way to use accelerometry data for inferring bone loading during childhood and adolescence.
PLAY-LAB: Physical Activity and You - Lifelong Activity for Bone Health
We want to learn more about how improving physical literacy impacts physical activity in children and youth.
RoWaCaWa: Robotic Walking for Children who Cannot Walk
This project is in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Condliffe (Director of the PONI Lab https://profiles.ucalgary.ca/elizabeth-condliffe). The bone health sub-study is funded by the Robertson Fund for Cerebral Palsy Research.
This project is a sub-study to the parent RoWaCaWa study that is evaluating the impact of robotic walking in children who cannot walk. In the bone health sub-study, we want to learn whether three months of robotic walking improves bone mineral density and strength.
TBone and TBone 2
This project is in collaboration with Dr. Steven Boyd (Director of the Bone Imaging Laboratory https://www.ucalgary.ca/labs/bonelab/home). These projects are funded by the Canadian Space Agency.
We want to understand the impact of long-duration spaceflight on bone microarchitecture, density and strength, including how exercise can mitigate spaceflight-induced bone loss.
CanBSDS: Canadian Bone Strength Development Study
The project is a collaboration with Dr. Saija Kontulainen and co-investigators at the University of Saskatchewan, as well as collaborators at the University of Ottawa – Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Toronto, and colleagues at the University of Calgary. This study is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
We want to learn why bone health is compromised in children with Type 1 Diabetes (T1DM) compared with their peers who do not have T1DM. This longitudinal study will follow youth through the adolescent growth spurt.