Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine

Future Research Projects

THE IMMUNOLOGY OF EXERCISE

Supervisors

Dr Bon Gray
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry

(Principal)		 Dr Sonya Marshall
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
& Cell Biology

(Co-supervisor)

BACKGROUND

Exercise has a known role in modulating the activity and capacity of the human immune system. Some of these changes may result in clinically significant changes in immune function. For instance, associations have been found between the "dose" (frequency, intensity, duration) of exercise and the incidence of upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). Many of the previous research studies have suffered from a lack of relatedness to training protocols actually used by athletes. To rectify this deficiency, the Bond University Institute for Sport (BUIS), in conjunction with the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine, will provide opportunities for Honours students to undertake research with BUIS teams/squads.

AIMS OF THE PROJECT

The aim of the project is to quantify the number and capacity of leucocytes present in the peripheral circulation of athletes engaged in intense training and competition and to develop "markers" of immunological status that can be applied to the training of athletes.

METHODS

Specific methods employed will depend on the hypotheses to be tested, but typically many investigations have used techniques such as flow cytometry to measure both the number and function of peripheral blood leucocytes. HSM has a "Facscan" flow cytometer, which is capable of four-colour labelling of leucocytes which can be counted at a rate of up to 5000 per second.