This list includes funded grants that support lab students and faculty. Listed are those where Dr. Winfree was a listed investigator at time of of submission. These are ordered by the year that funding began.

2017

Arizona Department of Health Services – Arizona New Investigator Award: Living in “My Home,” not in “A Home”

Kyle N. Winfree, Cole Galloway

Every year, over 700,000 people suffer a stroke nation wide. Two-thirds of those who suffer a stroke survive and require rehabilitation. A weakening of the muscle, specific the leg muscles, is especially common. For the care provider, this can become burdensome, or even risky. This can lead to a condition where the stroke survivor must move into a care provided facility. An in-home harness system, which would support the stroke survivor and minimize of injury caused by helping to move the stroke survivor, could provide a means of continued living at home.

The goal of this project is to develop a harness support system for stroke survivors that can be installed inside their own home. To do this, we propose to develop new technologies to enable a better range of motion than existing harness systems, both in the ability to travel between rooms and the ability to support standing and sit-to-stand or stand-to-sit motions.

There are three key objectives that will require development of technologies within this project. First, the between room track system that allows for multiple entry/exit points. Second, the body weight support system (BWS) that enables a large workspace and appropriate position dependent assistance. Third, the instrumentation to track activities inside and outside of the harness system.

2016

Northern Arizona University Faculty Grants Program: Is there a dose-response of exercise for resistance to oxidative stress?

Tinna Traustadóttir,  Kyle N. Winfree

Exercise is by far the strongest weapon in our arsenal in the fight against age-related diseases and functional decline. However, the optimal dose is still largely undetermined. Current exercise recommendations are similar to nutritional RDA’s (recommended daily amounts); they are aimed at correcting or preventing deficiencies but not necessarily the amount needed to give the best response or the greatest benefits. While it is easy to argue that any exercise is better than none, we would never prescribe a drug without knowing the dose-response. The research question of the proposed FGP project is whether dose of exercise has an effect on resistance to oxidative stress, and if so, what type of measure(s) of fitness and/or physical activity are most predictive of the oxidative stress response. This pilot study will recruit 20 older men and women (≥60y) who will complete a test of maximal aerobic capacity, a questionnaire of lifetime history of physical activity, and wear a wrist-worn activity monitor (Fitbit) for 7-days to measure current daily activity. Using activity monitors gives us the opportunity to gather data over a longer period and analyze a much broader scope of variables related to volume, intensity, and frequency of physical activity. Each participant will also complete a laboratory challenge designed to induce oxidative stress (forearm ischemia/reperfusion trial) and the response to the trial is an indicator of the resistance to oxidative stress. The different markers of exercise/physical activity will then be analyzed (separately and together) to ascertain how well they associate with resistance to oxidative stress. Expected results from this study are that fitness and exercise intensity will be better predictors of resistance to oxidative stress than pure volume such as daily number of steps. The insight gained from these results will guide our design in a intervention study that is in-preparation for submission to the NSF and NIH.