As the principal sports medicine Olympic legacy project in London, we translate research on elite athletes into health benefits for the general public. We have sports medicine and population health expertise, plus leading imaging, laboratory, and clinical facilities housed at the Institute of Sport, Exercise & Health.
Our work
Physical activity and health
We investigate the importance of physically active lifestyles in preventing major chronic diseases. In work led by Professor Mark Hamer, we use data to understand how much physical activity is needed to prevent illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.ÌýProfessor Mike Loosemore conducts research into sedentary behaviour and how we can design interventions to incorporate more movement into daily lives.
We engage with cohort studies, including Ïã¸ÛÁùºÏ²Ê Centre Longitudinal Studies, the Whitehall II Study, and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
Our ongoing projects include:
Compiling international cohort studies that use wearable technology to measure physical activity, sedentary and sleep [].
Evaluating the impact of group exercise on activity levels in people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in central London.
Examining links between exercise and neurocognitive function.
Musculoskeletal
We investigate pathologies around the lower limb, especially the knee and hip. This is led by Professor Fares Haddad. We research the effects on functional outcomes and lifestyle after interventions such as hip replacement. We have devised several unique techniques and scores to evaluate this in detail.
Our research themes include:Ìý
Meniscal preservation and replacement.
Optimal imaging for knee injuries.
The natural history of meniscal and cruciate injuries.
Tendinopathy, where we have created a ‘think tank’ of experts to understand the natural history, diagnosis, and optimum management of the condition.
Sports medicine
Our work supports the health and wellbeing of athletes. We are one of just eleven research centres from across the world designated as an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Research Centre for Prevention of Injury and Protection of Athlete Health.
Our focus areas are:
Respiratory illness in elite athletes.
Concussion: developing an office tool for concussion to be used in clinic.
Oral health and performance (in collaboration with Eastman Dental Institute).
Our facilities
The research facilities include imaging, laboratory, and clinical facilities housed at the Institute of Sport, Exercise & Health.ÌýThe exercise physiology labsÌýbased on Tottenham Court RoadÌýare equipped to assess a wide range of performance parameters covering the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. The institute also houses a fully-equipped gym for controlled exercise training studies.
The Sport and Exercise Medicine Group
Dr Hara Trouli
Rosalyn Cooke
Terun Desai
Paul Thawley
Ìý
PhD students
John Mitchell
Project: physical activity and cognition
Evelyn Watson
Project: sports and social mobility
Natalia Rojas
Project: long COVID in children
Funding / Partnerships
British Heart Foundation
Medical Research Council
National Institute Health Research
Greenhouse Sports
Metropolitan Police
British Olympic Association
International Olympic Committee
English Institute of Sport
HCA Healthcare UK
Select publications
Blodgett JM, Ahmadi MN, Atkin AJ, Chastin S, Chan HW ...ÌýTeixeira-Pinto AM, Ekelund U, Lee IM, Holtermann A, Koster A, Stamatakis E, Hamer M; ProPASS Collaboration (2023). . Eur Heart J. 2023 Nov 10:ehad717.
Stamatakis E, Ahmadi MN, Gill JMR, Thøgersen-Ntoumani C, Gibala MJ, Doherty A, Hamer M (2022). . Nat Med. 2022 Dec;28(12): 2521-2529.
Pearson N, Sherar LB, Hamer M. . JAMA Pediatr. 2019.
Pinto Pereira, S.M., Garfield, V., Farmaki, AE. et al. . BMC Med 20.Ìý2022.
Patricios J, Schneider GM, van Ierssel J, Purcell LK, Davis GA, Echemendia RJÌý...ÌýLoosemore M, et alÌý(2023).Ìý. Br J Sports Med. 2023 Jun;57(11): 651-667.