Health, nutrition and exercise sciences doctoral student Adam Bradley was awarded the Northland American College of Sports Medicine regional President’s Cup. The award is presented to the best student research presentation at the group’s regional meeting.
“It’s a tremendous honor to represent NDSU at the national President’s Cup competition,” Bradley said. “I’m excited for the opportunity to meet and compete against other professionals from around the country.”
Bradley earned a $250 stipend, $100 cash prize for the regional win and another $1,200 stipend to compete as the Northland chapter representative at the ACSM national meeting in San Diego, California. National winners receive a $300 prize.
Bradley’s presentation is titled “Body-Composition and Blood Lipid Changes Following 6-Weeks of Aerobic Exercise and Energy Restriction.” The original research was conducted in 2020 as a collaborative venture between HNES and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Bradley is advised by Kyle Hackney, associate professor of health, nutrition and exercise sciences.
“This is a great opportunity for Adam, and I am very excited for him to present at the national meeting so he can highlight the study findings. The overall goal of the collaboration between HNES and Dharmakeerthi Nawarathana in the Department of ECE was to examine circulating microRNA’s that may be predictive of weight loss,” Hackney said. “Circulating microRNAs are relatively new biomarkers related to health and disease and we see a lot of variation in weight loss; even when people complete the same exercise program and have the same energy deficit in their diet. The overarching question is why does this occur? Unfortunately, when we started the trial, COVID-19 hit the United States and we had to stop the 12-week trial for human subject safety at the six-week time point. Our six-week data are very important as it will help shed light on a critical issue and how these small particles in circulation may relate to the success or failure of a diet and exercise weight loss program. The full study is currently in review with a high impact factor scientific journal and we are excited for Adam to present a subset of the data at the national meeting. His presentation will help drive further work in this area because there is relatively little data in the literature on this topic.”
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