Rice and Houston Methodist unveiled the Houston Methodist-Rice University Center for Human Performance during a kickoff event Oct. 10.
The 6,000-square-foot facility, located in Rice’s Tudor Fieldhouse, will enable researchers to combine the science of human movement and disease prevention with new tools from data science, neuroscience and wearable technologies and materials to advance injury prevention and recovery and improve overall public health.
The facility includes state-of-the-art laboratory, clinical and rehabilitation space and is equipped for studies requiring the latest technology for advanced 3D motion capture, force-plate measurement, region-by-region quantification of bone density, metabolic analysis, cardiovascular screening and aerobic performance testing.
“This center will help athletes, older adults, people with disabilities and surgical patients improve their quality of life through a combination of physical activity, nutrition and advanced technologies,” Rice President Reginald DesRoches said.
“The mission of the center is to enhance human physical performance for both patients and athletes through research, clinical and educational activities and a commitment to advancing technology,” said Thomas Killian, dean of the Wiess School of Natural Sciences. “The facility is new, but the partnership between its core members — the Department of Orthopedics at Houston Methodist, the Department of Kinesiology at Rice and Rice Athletics — is longstanding.”
The center will facilitate joint research, clinical care initiatives and educational activities in exercise physiology, injury prevention and rehabilitation.
“The collaborative nature of this multi-institutional center will allow us to broaden the scope of the type of research programs that we can do and also allow us to reach higher for bigger, multi-institution grants that can help to sustain this longer in the future,” said Patrick McCulloch, vice chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Houston Methodist and head team physician at Rice.
“This center is really the first of its kind in Texas,” said Marc Boom, president and CEO of Houston Methodist. “It will enable our orthopedic team to customize treatment plans to patients based on their personal health, their metabolic profiles and biomedical data.”
Augusto Rodriguez, chair of Rice’s Department of Kinesiology and co-director of the Center for Human Performance, said the partnership will create fruitful research opportunities for students and faculty at both Rice and Houston Methodist.
The center will support Rice Athletics and Rice student athletes by both improving physical performance and providing on-campus clinical assessments, treatments and rehabilitation as well as educational and internship opportunities.
“What’s really going to happen here is the ability for baseline testing and as it relates to injury and recovery,” said Tommy McClelland, vice president and director of athletics. “We will be able to say with more certainty and more confidence to a student athlete, ‘You’re ready to re-enter.’ It’s going to be a game-changer in that aspect.”
To learn more about the Center for Human Performance, visit chp.rice.edu.
