4th-year Samuel Amanual presented his research alongside U of GH instructors and alumni
"Having undergraduate and graduate students attend and present at the conference is beneficial for their experiential research exposure and reinforces the standards we have in the Kinesiology program at Guelph-Humber.” - Kinesiology Interim Associate Head Dr. Robert Gumieniak
University of Guelph-Humber (U of GH) student Samuel Amanual had an exceptional experience for an undergraduate student: presenting their own research poster at the Canadian Society For Exercise Physiology (CSEP) Conference in Montreal.
The fourth-year Kinesiology student worked on a thesis project with five other researchers from various academic institutions, including two U of GH alumni, called "Effects of histamine receptor antagonism on sympathetic neurovascular transduction following acute aerobic exercise.”
“It was a great opportunity because there's not a lot, if any, undergraduate students that presented a thesis [at the conference],” Amanual said.
The group set forth on a mission to find out if histamines (what causes allergy symptoms in people) are responsible for increasing blood pressure, breathing rate, and heart rate – the fight or flight response – when working out. They gave participants in the study antihistamine medication (what people take when they’re experiencing an allergic reaction) before working out to block the histamines. Through this lab work, the group found that histamines are indeed responsible for the fight or flight response, confirming what they suspected ahead of the lab testing.
Kinesiology Interim Associate Head Dr. Robert Gumieniak, who also attended, said the conference itself is a wonderful learning experience for students.
“As a CSEP member since 2007, I have found the conference to be a valuable teaching and learning opportunity, where I often translate knowledge gained into my classroom and laboratory teaching,” he said. “The conference is also an excellent networking opportunity, with many like-minded people from across academia and industry in Canada. Having undergraduate and graduate students attend and present at the conference is beneficial for their experiential research exposure and reinforces the standards we have in the Kinesiology program at Guelph-Humber.”
Attending CSEP also showed Amanual just how tightly-knit the exercise physiology community is, which was one of his favourite parts of the opportunity, as well as sharing the experience with Dr. Gumieniak – one of his academic mentors.
As for his research, Amanual became interested in conducting it during his second year of study, having worked on it until his fourth year. He met Dr. Massimo Nardone, one of his fellow researchers and a U of GH alum (Kinesiology, class of 2017), when he enrolled in his exercise physiology course at the University. He also met Julian Bommarito, another research collaborator on the project, PhD candidate at the University of Guelph, and U of GH alum during his third year at U of GH.
Through the connection forged when taking exercise physiology, Dr. Nardone inspired Amanual to reach out to Dr. Philip Millar, who he worked under while earning his PhD, to collaborate on this research – which culminated in this poster presentation. Amanual said he asked Dr. Millar if he could present his research at the CSEP Conference because he wanted to get more experience presenting research to others. Dr. Millar was Amanual’s research advisor and principal investigator, an instructor in the Kinesiology program at U of GH and a faculty member at the University of Guelph.
"I think that they were 1,000% great mentors,” Amanual said. He added that early into his studies, Dr. Nardone and Bommarito helped him feel less intimated by lab work.
As his mentor, Bommarito was always impressed by Amanual’s work ethic; he was even impressed that when driving from Toronto to Guelph early in the morning, Amanual always arrived ahead of schedule and put his best foot forward in the lab. “I’ve known Sam for just over two years,” said Bommarito. “He’s a very, very good student and a very good person, too.”
For students interested in pursuing research in their undergraduate studies, Bommarito’s advice is to take initiative to reach out to labs you have interest in pursuing, and to seek out professors (even through reading their online biographies) whose expertise aligns with what you intend to research.
"I think research gives you a different perspective on health and an understanding of what health is versus what is disease,” he said, of kinesiology research.
To learn more about research and scholarly activities at Guelph-Humber, click here.