Athlete Health Lab

The Athlete Health Lab is a multidisciplinary hub dedicated to advancing athlete well-being and performance through cutting-edge research and development. We aim to translate scientific insights into practical tools and strategies that promote long-term health and resilience in sport.

Our ambition is to develop and validate objective methods that help monitor, understand, and support athlete health across diverse domains. Our work spans: 

• Point-of-care biomarker testing to enable rapid insights into training adaptation and recovery.
• Collaboration with athletes and federations to refine protocols and improve real-world applicability.
• Infrastructure and expertise to support ethical, high-quality research and athlete-centered innovation.  

Facilities and Capabilities 

Our lab is equipped for:

• Sample collection and processing (e.g. capillary and venous blood, saliva, urine)
• Point-of-care biomarker testing (lactate, glucose, oxidative stress/defence + more)
• Specific biomarker analysis in batches (e.g. ELISA methodology)
• Skin and core temperature monitoring (including wireless sensors and telemetric pills)
• DExA scanning for body composition and bone health
• Lung function testing

Collaboration and Network

We actively collaborate with other research centres and institutions to support research into athlete health. This includes:

• Sample analysis and method development for external and collaborative projects
• Access to lab infrastructure
• Cross-disciplinary innovation

If you're interested in collaborating with us, we welcome enquiries from researchers, teams, and organisations working in sport science, health, and performance.

Example projects

• Aegis4: Cold chamber EIB screening in adolescent winter athletes 
  In partnership with Umeå University, we developed a cold-chamber exercise challenge test to investigate the prevalence and mechanisms of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) in adolescent winter athletes
• The Skiers Metabolome 
  A discovery project to explore biomarkers of performance and health in cross-country skiers using metabolomic profiling.
• Psychological readiness and stress biomarker responses to exercise 
  Method development for hormone analysis across venous blood, capillary blood, saliva, urine, and menstrual blood to improve menstrual cycle phase tracking in female athletes.
• Determining individual tolerance to high altitude 
  A project that aims to integrate genetic and metabolomic data to determine inherent and dynamic characteristics of tolerance to exercise in hypoxia.