Alex Claiborne, Ph.D.

Education

• Postdoctoral Scholar, Kinesiology, East Carolina University
• Ph.D. Human Bioenergetics, Ball State University
• M.S. Kinesiology, Nutrition, and Health, Miami University
• B.S. Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington  

Biography

I originally hail from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, home to the fighting Wake Forest Demon Deacons. While I gave my best shot at the acquisition of great basketball prowess at their summer camp each year as a kid, it would be the sport of cycling that eventually fostered my passion for exercise physiology, while a Biology major studying at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I have been carefully crafting my competitive edge with the advices of both classic and more modern approaches to the science ever since my first season of road racing. I tended to finish towards the rear. Some things never change, even to this day -- but now, at least I know why. I have my graduate work at Miami University (M.S. Kinesiology, Nutrition, and Health) and Ball State University (Ph.D. Human Bioenergetics) to thank for all the help -- as well as a strong postdoctoral training experience at East Carolina University, and more than a handful of good training partners through the years.

Research Interests

I have a strong interest in bioenergetics –specifically, how changes in oxygen uptake, i.e., VO2, reflect the conversion and use of energy in humans. My scholarship centers on metabolism during exercise, with a particular emphasis on quantifying the energetic demand of different exercise modalities, and how alterations in exercise “dose”—including frequency, intensity, time, type, and volume—affect health outcomes. I bring experience collecting a range of clinical and physiological measurements, including indirect calorimetry, body composition, and skeletal muscle health in both conditioning (e.g., exercise training) and deconditioning (e.g., prolonged bed rest, spaceflight, and aging) stimuli.

During my postdoctoral training, I investigated the relationship between exercise dose and maternal-infant outcomes in physically active pregnant individuals. This work used an integrative, whole-body to cellular approach, including the use of infant-derived mesenchymal stem cells to study how maternal exercise influences fetal health and development. A major focus of this work was understanding how the different aspects of exercise dose affect both health outcomes, with specific insights on cellular and whole-body energy expenditure in mother and infant. My recent research has shifted toward studying the metabolic response to exercise during pregnancy, utilizing portable indirect calorimetry systems to measure oxygen consumption in real-time.

Building on this foundation, I plan to expand my work to include individuals with overweight and obesity, focusing on the role of exercise in energy balance and metabolic health. I am also interested in how exercise training alters resting energy expenditure, and how these changes can contribute to long-term obesity management.

As part of my ongoing research agenda at Miami University, I plan to integrate my work into the Human Performance Laboratory. I will focus on measuring oxygen consumption during periods of rest and exercise to estimate energy expenditure in different populations. My long-term goal is to understand how different interventions can help to optimize energy balance. An additional research focus involves investigating how increased body mass may affect ventilation and energy expenditure during exercise. Throughout these studies, I will also compare previously published estimates of energy expenditure with measurements in the laboratory, so as to evaluate their accuracy and utility in various populations.

My research aims include: 1. Investigating exercise energy expenditure in pregnant and non-pregnant individuals 2. Exploring the effects of exercise on resting energy expenditure in obesity 3. Examining exercise energy expenditure in populations with low and high body mass Student Research Opportunities Students working with me will gain hands-on experience in clinical research methods, including body composition analysis and indirect calorimetry, as well as study design, data analysis, scientific writing, and research presentation. I am committed to mentoring students in applied research that bridges exercise science and clinical health outcomes.

Select Publications

• Claiborne A, Jevtovic F, Biagioni EM, Wisseman B, Roenker B, Rossa L, Ollmann C, Kern K, Steen D, McDonald S, Strom C, Newton E, Isler C, deVente J, Mouro S, Collier D, Kuehn D, Kelley GA, Maples J, O’Tierney Ginn P, Broskey NT, Houmard JA, May LE. Prenatal Exercise Modality and Resting Blood Lactate in Overweight and Obese Women. Physiol Rep. Accepted for Publication. 2025.
• Trappe T, Minchev K, Perkins R, Lavin K, Jemiolo B, Ratchford S, Claiborne A, Lee G, Finch WH, Ryder J, Ploutz-Snyder L, Trappe S. NASA SPRINT exercise program efficacy for vastus lateralis and soleus skeletal muscle health during 70 days of simulated microgravity. J Appl Physiol 2023. doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00489.2023.
• Claiborne A, Jevtovic F, Zheng D, Strom C, Wisseman B, McDonald S, Newton E, Mouro S, deVente J, Houmard JA, Broskey NT, May LE. Prenatal Exercise Modulates One-Month Infant Body Fat & Cellular Adipogenesis. Physiol Rep 12(23):e70145, 2024. doi: 10.14814/phy2.70145.
• Jevtovic F, Claiborne A, deVente J, Mouro S, Houmard J, Broskey N, May L. Maternal resistance exercise increases infant energy expenditure. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2024. Doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00414.2024.
• Claiborne A, Wisseman B, Kern K, Steen D, Jevtovic F, McDonald S, Strom C, Newton E, Isler C, deVente J, Mouro S, Collier D, Kuehn D, Kelley GA, May LE. Exercise During Pregnancy Dose: Influence on Preterm Birth Outcomes. EJOGRB 300, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2024.07.017.
• Claiborne A, Wisseman B, Kern K, Steen D, Jevtovic F, McDonald S, Strom C, Newton E, Isler C, deVente J, Mouro S, Collier D, Kuehn D, Kelley GA, May LE. Exercise During Pregnancy FITT-V: Association with Birth Outcomes. Birth Defects Res 116(4):e2340, 2024. doi: 10.1002/bdr2.2340.
• Jevtovic F, Zheng D, Claiborne A, Biagioni EM, Wisseman BL, Krassovskaia PM, Collier DN, Isler C, DeVente JE, Neufer PD, Houmard JA, May LE. Effects of maternal exercise on infant mesenchymal stem cell mitochondrial function, insulin action, and body composition in infancy. Physiol Rep 2024. doi:10.14814/phy2.16028.
• Claiborne A, Jevtovic F, May LE. A Narrative Review of Exercise Dose During Pregnancy. Birth Defects Res 115(17):1581-1597, 2023. doi: 10.1002/bdr2.2249. Jevtovic F, Zheng D, Houmard JA, Kern K, Claiborne A, Lopez CA, Broskey NT, Isler C, DeVente J, Newton E, May LE. Infant myogenically differentiated MSC insulin sensitivity is associated with infant adiposity at 1 and 6 months of age. Obesity. 2023. doi: 10.1002/oby.23829.
• Fountain WA, Naruse M, Finch WH, Claiborne A, Trappe SW, Trappe TA. Influence of aspirin on aging skeletal muscle: Insights from a cross-sectional cohort of septuagenarians. Physiol Rep. 2023. doi: 10.14814/phy2.15669.
• Claiborne A, Alessio H*, Slattery E, Hughes M, Barth E, Cox RH. Heart rate variability reflects similar cardiac autonomic function in explosive and aerobically trained athletes. IJERPH 18(20), 2021. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182010669.
• Naruse M, Fountain WA, Claiborne A, Finch WH, Trappe S, Trappe TA. Muscle group-specific skeletal muscle aging: a 5-year longitudinal study in septuagenarians. J Appl Physiol 134(4):915-922, 2023. doi: 10.1152/japplyphysiol.00769.2022.

Invited Lectures

• Strom C, Wisseman B, Claiborne A, May L. Prevention Through Intervention. The Growing Science of Maternal Exercise and How It Improves the Health of Mother and Baby. International Community of Scholars in Kinesiology Symposium. Western Kentucky University (Online). October 2024.
• Claiborne A. Exercise During Pregnancy: Dose-Response for Infant Health. Early Career Symposium. Colorado University Anschutz Medical Campus. May 2023.
• Claiborne A. Influence of 70 Days Bed Rest and the NASA SPRINT Exercise Countermeasures Program on Skeletal Muscle Health. East Carolina University. August 2022.
• Claiborne A. Influence of 70 Days Bed Rest and the NASA SPRINT Exercise Countermeasures Program on Skeletal Muscle Health. Marquette University. July 2022.

Funding

Funded Support- Thrasher Research Fund Early Career Award (PI: Claiborne) $26,750 2024-2025 Prenatal Exercise Dose and Infant Adiposity (PEDIA).

The aim of this project is to determine the beneficial effects of higher prenatal exercise duration and volume on adipogenesis in offspring mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) and how cellular findings translate to infant body fat % and skinfold measurements.

Honors and Awards

WILEY Top Cited Article

Claiborne A, Jevtovic F, May LE. A Narrative Review of Exercise Dose During Pregnancy. Birth Defects Research 115(17):1581-1597, 2023. doi: 10.1002/bdr2.2249. Article among top 10 most-cited papers published by the journal in 2023.