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Research area(s)

Oliver's primary research interests relate to Applied Human Physiology and in particular the impact of Heat Stress on Human Health, Performance, and Function. Research in this area can be broadly divided into three areas

1. Understanding the impact of climate change/heat waves on human health.
   • This work has a particular emphasis on examining the independent effects of temperature and/or physical activity on gut permeability and systemic inflammation. Associated work considers strategies to improve the resilience of the gut to stress.
2. Examining the efficacy of thermal interventions to enhance health and physiological function and address disease states in clinical and exercise contexts.
   • Experimental work in this area has a specific emphasis on the impact of passive heating as a means to stimulate angiogenesis in skeletal muscle, and improve force production during dynamic contractions
3. Quantifying changes in endurance and team sport performance in the heat and examining methods to attenuate performance declines and risk to health.
   • Work in this domain includes laboratory and field based testing and interventions to characterise changes in performance and establish the efficacy of heat alleviation strategies.

Experimental work commonly involves an array of thermophysiological and metabolic measurement techniques to quantify systemic and local responses during passive or exertional heat stress. In addition, projects may utilise at variety of tissue sampling techniques e.g., muscle biopsies and venepuncture/cannulation, with the collected samples ultimately analysed using benchtop or advanced measurement approaches e.g., RT-PCr, Western Blotting and ELISA techniques. In addition to conducting human experimental trials, cell culture techniques are being utilised as a complement to the established in vivo work.

Grants