Biomechanics Laboratory

The Biomechanics Laboratory is housed in the 3,000-square-foot Sports Injury Research Center facility on the UNLV campus along with an additional gait laboratory housed in an 800 square foot annex.

Overall, the facility is well equipped with multiple 3D motion capture systems, force platforms, portable EMG sensors, shoe impact testing equipment, bodyweight support treadmill, metabolic measurement cart, micro accelerometers, isokinetic strength testing, and a wide variety of other instruments.

Faculty (Julia Freedman Silvernail, Ph.D., Kara Radzak, ATC, LAT, Ph.D, Janet Dufek, Ph.D., and John Mercer, Ph.D.) share a research focus on lower-extremity function and performance primarily during locomotion and landing tasks. In addition, each faculty member has a unique research agenda but work to maintain a collaborative research environment for faculty and students.

Exercise Physiology Laboratory

The Exercise Physiology Laboratory comprises of three separate rooms that focus on human performance, exercise biochemistry, and body composition.

The main lab is 2300 sq ft and is used for evaluating human performance and body composition evaluation. Equipment used for human performance includes Landice and Nautilus treadmills, Woodway performance training and & rehabilitation Wattbike, Cosmed k4b2 portable gas analysis system, Hypoxico high altitude simulator, Quinton electrocardiogram machine, Hexoskin wearable body metric shirts, OMRON BP742 automated blood pressure devices, NOVA Biomedical Lactate Plus lactate meters, Minispir light spirometer, AEI Moxus metabolic measurement system, Dekan timing device with landing/timing pads, a vertical jump board and a 65" wall mounted HD TV. Equipment used for determining body composition includes an underwater weighing system, BOD POD, and Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA).

A separate 2050 sq ft. learning lab is located next to the main lab. It is used for teaching and as additional research space. It contains 3 Precore treadmills, 4 Monark cycle ergometers, 2 Monark Rehab Trainers, and a Quinton Corival 400 ergometer. Items such as Lange skinfold calipers, various step boxes, sit and reach equipment, Douglas bags, Tanita TBF-541 and OMRON HBF-300 bio-impedance devices, and various weight-lifting equipment are also located in this space for hands-on learning.

The exercise biochemistry lab is 150 sq ft and includes an Epoch 96-well microtiter plate reader, Beckman refrigerated centrifuge, Eppendorf micro centrifuge, Revco -80 freezer, Air Science ductless fume hood, Precision reciprocal shaking water bath, Genesys Gamma-1 RIA gamma counter, and Barnstead Mega Pure water system.

Physically Demanding Professions Research Laboratory

Our mission is to optimize human performance in physically demanding professions such as firefighting, rescue, and military service. We accomplish this aim through the scholarship of:

  1. Research- generating high-quality, new knowledge in the field of tactical human performance
  2. Teaching- enticing & educating both current & future scholars & practitioners
  3. Integration- making connections across disciplines, including those of nutrition, sport science, engineering, etc.
  4. Application- working to solve consequential problems for scholars, practitioners, & end-users

We use various modalities to accomplish our work, including:

  • VXSport real-time physiological monitoring 
  • Sorinex isometric mid-thigh pull rack and Kistler force plate
  • Monark Wingate Ergometers
  • VALD assessment devices