About Our Lab
Our Story
The Metabolic and Exercise Physiology Laboratory (MEPL) was established in 2024 under the leadership of Dr. Daniel G. Miller, DC, DACNB, whose background in clinical practice, public health, exercise physiology, and education shaped the foundation for a distinctive model of research at Binghamton University. From its inception, the laboratory was designed to serve as more than a site for metabolic and exercise testing. It was envisioned as an interdisciplinary research environment where scientific inquiry, student leadership, experiential learning, and service could converge. The laboratory opened its doors for official data collection in the Fall of 2025.
MEPL uses the COSMED Quark RMR-CPET metabolic cart, a research-grade system that allows for advanced physiological assessment at rest and during exercise. Through indirect calorimetry and breath-by-breath gas exchange analysis, the lab measures oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, ventilation, respiratory exchange, resting energy expenditure, substrate utilization, aerobic capacity, and related cardiometabolic variables.
This technology allows the lab to examine the complex relationships among metabolism, aerobic capacity, cardiovascular function, sleep, nutrition, physical activity, stress, behavioral health, noncommunicable disease risk, and social determinants of health. Rather than studying these factors in isolation, MEPL approaches health as an integrated system shaped by biology, behavior, environment, and lived experience.
In 2024, as a sophomore, Rania Khan became MEPL’s Founding Director of Research and Undergraduate Laboratory Manager, helping establish the undergraduate research infrastructure that supports the laboratory today. Drawing on experience in nutritional neuroscience research, clinical patient care, community health outreach, and student-led research development, Khan structured the lab into a high-functioning environment for scientific training and project management.
Alongside Khan, Nema Sayeed, the Director of Research Operations, and Sara Saleh, the Director of Research Development, formed MEPL’s first Founding Undergraduate Executive Team. Together, they built a selective, interdisciplinary undergraduate research model that spans Binghamton University’s colleges and professional pathways. They oversee daily operations, study design, project implementation, data management, student training, scholarly dissemination, and external engagement, ensuring that all studies are executed with precision and scientific rigor.
The team plays a central role in guiding MEPL’s research portfolio, selecting and developing each study, coordinating the necessary instrumentation, and shaping the laboratory’s culture of undergraduate leadership, collaboration, and applied human physiology research. The executive team also helps represent the laboratory in conversations with campus partners,
community collaborators, university leadership, and external stakeholders. Through these efforts, they support MEPL’s growing presence as a model for undergraduate research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and applied human physiology at Binghamton University.
The current research team, mentored by Dr. Miller, composed of 25-30 undergraduate student researchers with one statistical graduate student, includes students pursuing medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, public health, public policy, dentistry, optometry, neuroscience, psychology, biology, and health and wellness studies. Their work reflects a central
principle of the lab: undergraduate students should not only participate in research, but also help shape the systems through which research is conducted, communicated, and translated into impact.
A defining feature of the laboratory is its integration with the Health and Wellness Studies Department. Through course-embedded research experiences, students enrolled in health and wellness courses participate in metabolic and exercise physiology testing and receive individualized physiological outputs related to resting metabolic rate, aerobic capacity,
cardiovascular response, substrate utilization, sleep, physical activity, and other health-related measures. This model transforms the classroom into a living research environment, allowing students to connect scientific concepts to their own physiological data while contributing to larger research questions about young adult health and performance.
The laboratory’s research agenda is driven by one of the most pressing questions in modern health science: how early do the patterns of lifelong health begin? Young adulthood is often viewed as a period of natural resilience, yet it is also a pivotal stage when sleep disruption, chronic stress, dietary behaviors, physical activity patterns, metabolic function, mental health,
and social environment begin to shape long-term wellness trajectories. As cardiometabolic concerns and noncommunicable disease risk factors emerge at increasingly younger ages, MEPL studies this critical window with the goal of identifying the physiological and behavioral signals that may influence health before disease takes hold.
MEPL is also committed to advancing one of the most important frontiers in exercise and performance science: female physiology. For decades, much of what is considered foundational in exercise physiology has been shaped by male-centered data, leaving major gaps in understanding female metabolism, hormonal variation, hydration, neuromuscular function,
recovery, injury risk, and athletic performance. Madison Gangi, a pivotal laboratory leader, seeks to help close this gap by treating female physiology not as a complication to control for, but as an essential dimension of human performance science through a proposed study in collaboration with the Motion Analysis Research Lab (MARL). Through this work, MEPL contributes to a more precise, inclusive, and biologically informed understanding of health, exercise, and
performance.
Through its integrative model, MEPL brings together gold-standard metabolic and cardiopulmonary testing, validated behavioral and psychometric instruments, student-led research, and community-centered education. The laboratory does not study the body as a collection of isolated measurements, but as a dynamic system shaped by biology, behavior,
environment, and lived experience. In doing so, MEPL advances research that is scientifically rigorous, educationally transformative, and directly relevant to student wellness, community health, performance science, and the future of preventive medicine.
Beyond its research mission, the laboratory is grounded in service. Through campus wellness events, community education, and outreach initiatives, the lab works to make health science accessible beyond the research setting. Its goal is not only to generate data, but to translate knowledge into prevention, education, empowerment, and community impact.
Today, the Metabolic and Exercise Physiology Laboratory represents a distinctive model of undergraduate research at Binghamton University: faculty-mentored, student-led, course-integrated, interdisciplinary, community-centered, and translational in purpose. It prepares students to become future clinicians, scientists, educators, and public health leaders
while advancing research that responds to urgent gaps in the fields of metabolism, exercise physiology, and human performance science.
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Machine Tests
Laboratory Operations
The Metabolic and Exercise Physiology Laboratory operates through a structured, course-embedded testing model designed to support physiological assessment, undergraduate research training, and interdisciplinary project development. The laboratory maintains active testing operations Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., with designated testing blocks organized according to protocol-specific preparation requirements.
Morning testing sessions are dedicated primarily to Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) assessment, allowing participants to complete testing under standardized pre-test metabolic conditions. Afternoon sessions are reserved for Graded Exercise Testing (GXT) and Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing (CPET) protocols, which require additional exercise preparation and monitoring procedures.
During a standard laboratory visit, participants complete intake procedures that include validated psychometric and behavioral questionnaires, baseline vital sign assessment, and metabolic or exercise testing using the COSMED Quark RMR-CPET metabolic cart. Laboratory protocols integrate physiological measures with behavioral, psychosocial, and lifestyle data related to sleep, physical activity, stress, nutrition, caffeine use, and other determinants of health and performance.
Participants enrolled in select Health and Wellness Studies courses receive individualized physiological outputs generated from their testing sessions. These data are subsequently interpreted within course instruction as part of required curricular activities, allowing students to engage directly with real physiological assessment alongside concepts in metabolism, exercise physiology, nutrition, and health behavior.
MEPL’s operations are supported by approximately 25 to 30 undergraduate research assistants who contribute to participant coordination, testing preparation, protocol execution, data organization, and laboratory workflow management. All research assistants maintain CPR/BLS certification to support a prepared and safety-conscious testing environment.
Through its operational structure, MEPL functions simultaneously as a physiological testing facility, undergraduate training environment, and scalable research infrastructure. The laboratory’s integrated model supports high-volume data collection while providing students with direct exposure to scientific protocols, participant interaction, physiological assessment, and research operations within an applied human performance setting.
Community Service
& Engagement
The Metabolic and Exercise Physiology Laboratory’s community engagement work reflects President Anne D’Alleva’s emphasis on service, collaboration, student opportunity, and community impact, as well as Binghamton University’s broader commitment to academic excellence, research innovation, and public engagement.
This commitment is reflected in the work and mission of Dr. Daniel G. Miller, who ensures research is not limited to the laboratory. It is a tool for education, prevention, empowerment, and community connection.
To support this mission, MEPL has developed two student-led service groups: the Community Health Outreach Group and the Institutional Engagement Group. Together, these groups help create programming that responds to both on-campus wellness priorities and off-campus community health needs.
The Community Health Outreach Group focuses on partnerships throughout the local community, including engagement with nursing homes, participation in Narcan kit-making initiatives, and representation at off-campus health and wellness events. Through this work, students gain firsthand experience in community-centered health education while supporting initiatives that address real local needs.
The Institutional Engagement Group focuses on campus-based outreach, student organization partnerships, wellness programming, tabling events, and educational demonstrations across Binghamton University. This group helps make metabolism, exercise physiology, preventive health, and research opportunities more visible and accessible to students.
Together, these groups reflect MEPL’s belief that scientific training and public service should strengthen one another. By bringing health education into campus and community spaces, MEPL prepares students to become not only skilled researchers, but also thoughtful clinicians, public health professionals, educators, and servant leaders.
For campus or community programming inquiries, contact hwsmetexe@binghamton.edu to connect with MEPL’s outreach and engagement groups.
Metabolic Night
Each semester, our lab hosts the “Metabolic Lab Night” is an annual laboratory open-house experience designed to make human physiology visible, interactive, and accessible to the Binghamton University community. Our Metabolic Lab Night invites students from across campus to step inside the lab, meet the research team, and experience the science of metabolism, exercise, and human performance firsthand.
Proposed and led by laboratory leaders Amina Haq and Sophia Aparicio, the event welcomes students into the Metabolic and Exercise Physiology Laboratory for an evening of exploration, connection, and hands-on learning. Students meet undergraduate research assistants, learn about ongoing research projects, engage with interactive stations, discuss clinical case studies, and discover how they can become involved in student-led research.
A central feature of Metabolic Night is the opportunity for students to observe and participate in exercise testing demonstrations using the lab’s COSMED Quark RMR-CPET metabolic cart. Through treadmill-based testing, students are introduced to the same type of cardiopulmonary exercise testing used to evaluate how the heart, lungs, muscles, and metabolic system respond to increasing exercise intensity. For some participants, this testing may include an opportunity to approach or identify their VO2max– the body’s oxygen ceiling: the point at which the heart, lungs, blood, and muscles are working together at their highest capacity to sustain intense movement.
The Metabolic Lab Night also includes interactive learning stations, physiology-themed Jeopardy, discussions of clinical case studies. These activities are designed to make complex scientific concepts approachable while encouraging students to think critically about metabolism, health, exercise, disease prevention, and human performance.
Metabolic Night serves as both an outreach initiative and a pathway for students interested in research, healthcare, public health, exercise science, rehabilitation, athletics, and human performance. Throughout the evening, students have the opportunity to speak directly with Principal Investigator Dr. Daniel G. Miller, the lab’s student leaders, and current undergraduate research assistants. These conversations allow students to learn about the lab’s research mission, understand the roles available within the team, ask questions about the undergraduate research experience, and explore how they can become involved.
Open to all students, the event reflects the lab’s broader mission to combine rigorous scientific inquiry with education, mentorship, accessibility, and service.
MEPL regularly shares student-led research through poster presentations, abstracts, and conference participation. Our undergraduate researchers contribute to the development of scholarly materials that communicate the lab's findings in metabolism, exercise physiology, young adult health, and human performance.
MEPL continues to present work at Binghamton University's Annual Research Days, Developmental Biology New York, an NIH-funded conference, and other regional and national research venues serving as both keynote speakers and poster presenters. Through these experiences, students gain hands-on training in data interpretation, scientific writing, poster development, and professional research presentation.
Through scholarly dissemination, MEPL prepares students to contribute to the broader scientific community while advancing research that is rigorous, interdisciplinary, and relevant to real-world health.
