Dr. Lisa (Guth) Pitchford is an exercise physiologist and research scientist. She started her research career as a student in the Ball State University Human Performance Lab. She became interested in the relationships between exercise and genetics, which led her to pursue her Ph.D. with Dr. Steve Roth at the University of Maryland. She then did a post-doctoral fellowship focused on metabolism at the University of Michigan before taking on her current role as a Research Scientist at Metabolic Technologies, Inc. in Ames, Iowa. Her scientific expertise ranges from applied human physiology to molecular biology and genetics, and her research in exercise performance, metabolism and nutrition has spanned human, animal, and cell culture research models. Outside of science, she enjoys running marathons, traveling with her husband, and trying new microbreweries. Topics Covered: How Lisa become interested in genetics Conceptually how researchers in the field go about studying individual gene function and the interactions between various genes What does our current understanding of genetics tell us and not tell us about health/disease and predicting athletic performance Limitations of studying single genes in isolation What do physiological and genetic metrics tell us about performance Ethics of genetic testing What should consumers (parents, sports coaches/executives, medical staffs, etc) know about how to more effectively evaluate claims about products marketed to better inform training programs and predict talent? Where the field of sports genetics is headed
Dr. Lisa (Guth) Pitchford is an exercise physiologist and research scientist. She started her research career as a student in the Ball State University Human Performance Lab. She became interested in the relationships between exercise and genetics, which led her to pursue her Ph.D. with Dr. Steve Roth at the University of Maryland. She then did a post-doctoral fellowship focused on metabolism at the University of Michigan.