MSc by Research in Sports and Exercise Sciences - Ageing and The Cardiopulmonary System

University of Leeds

This is a joint research theme with the Cardiovascular and Sport and Exercise Science research groups. Our ultimate goal is to reduce the severity of cardiopulmonary disease and to improve the quality of life in odler adults. We adopt an integrative approach to our research that spans all the way from measurements of electrical activity in single cardiac cells through to in vivo measurements of lung function, and the consequences for exercise tolerance. We aim to identify the key parameters that change with healthy ageing and cardiopulmonary disease and develop low-cost strategies, such as exercise training and nutritional supplementation which ameliorate functional deficits. We use animal models and human participants for our research in this area, complemented by multi-scale in silico modelling. Our expertise includes molecular biology and electrophysiological approaches in pacemaker and non-pacemaker cells of the heart; composition of skeletal muscle; functional imaging techniques in vivo to assess vascular, endothelial and cardiac function; and measures of lung function and breath-by-breath pulmonary gas exchange.