Human and Environmental Physiology Research Unit (HEPRU)
Kenny’s research has advanced our understanding of the factors affecting a person’s ability to live and work productively in the heat, which is defined by well-established, highly interconnected areas of research assessing human heat stress from whole-body, end-organ and cellular perspectives. Central to this work is his pioneering research re-engineering the world’s only whole-body air calorimeter, a device that can precisely measure the heat dissipated by the human body. This technology is widely recognized as the gold standard for the study of human heat resilience. He has employed this unique tool to define for the first time the level of heat stress at which individual factors limit the body’s physiological capacity to dissipate heat and to translate high-resolution data into heat protection solutions and technologies (outlined below).
Research focus 1: Understanding the mechanisms governing the regulation of heat loss
This research aims to delineate the mechanisms underpinning the regulation of heat loss responses of skin blood flow and sweating in relation to individual factors (e.g., sex, age, disease, race, fitness) we have shown can alter our physiological capacity to dissipate heat. This includes assessing the influence of nonthermal factors associated with blood pressure, fluid balance and muscle metabolite regulation, and other factors, that can modulate the activation of heat loss responses. By assessing the putative transmitters and co-transmitters involved in regulation of heat loss, we are delineating the physiological mechanisms limiting human heat tolerance during rest or exercise in the heat.
Research focus 2: Elucidating the complex cellular response of the human heat stress response
This work evaluates the human heat stress response from the cellular level through assessment of responses related to autophagy, apoptosis, inflammation and the heat shock response. Heat stress induces the release of various neuroendocrine and immune biomarkers, which assist in protecting the body against heat-induced cell damage. While normal functioning autophagy plays a critical role in protecting cells, our work demonstrates that heat stress can disrupt autophagic activity, causing a degradation in cellular function. By assessing cellular mechanisms through techniques such as western blotting (to analyze protein content) and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (to assess changes in transcriptional regulation during heat stress), we are advancing our understanding of how heat stress manifests.
Research focus 3: Defining the body’s physiological capacity to dissipate heat
This work explicates the physiological mechanisms governing human heat exchange during rest and exercise in the heat as a function of different individual factors (e.g., sex, age, disease, race, hydration, menstrual cycle, medication, sleep quality). By delineating the level of heat stress (as defined by the combined heat load from the environment and heat generated from metabolic processes during exercise), where impairments in whole-body heat loss occurs employing our world’s only air calorimeter, we are defining the physiological limits of human heat tolerance.
Research focus 4: Creating resilience strategies for extreme heat
A key thrust of our work is creating actionable heat protection solutions that include the integration of our novel physiological data acquired from both our laboratory- and field-based heat simulation trials. Field work involves the assessment of the environment, physical (or work) demands of the activities performed, and physiological and other responses in individuals under “real-life” living and working situations. By recreating these conditions in a controlled laboratory setting, we can define the physiological responses in the high-risk conditions that pose a threat to public and worker performance, health or safety, and generate ecologically-valid heat management guidance.
Research focus 5: Creating heat protection technologies to safeguard health and safety
A key thrust of our work program is the development of advanced heat management solutions, in partnership with Smartcone Technologies, in the form of technologies to manage and monitor heat strain in vulnerable population groups and workers through the exploitation of the high-resolution data acquired from our laboratory- and field-based physiological studies.
Learn more about the Human and Environmental Physiology Research Unit (HEPRU).
HEPRU introduction video (YouTube)
