The UC Irvine Health Research Center for Exercise Medicine and Sleep (RCEMS) formally known as the Pediatric Exercise and Genomics Research Center was launched in 2012 and is dedicated to harnessing the healing power of exercise and sleep. We know that improving health outcomes for all people starts with research.
Our nationally renowned clinicians, exercise physiologists and researchers are driven to learn what type of exercise, how much and for how long, produces the most predictable, effective outcomes to improve childhood health. They also seek the biological mechanisms that trigger specific physiological responses to exercise.
The sleep team is focused on understanding how sleep influences health and recovery, aiming to uncover the mechanisms by which sleep impacts physical, cognitive, and emotional well-being across all age groups.
RCEMS is one of the few centers in the nation exploring the connection between exercise and the epigenome (the intermediary between genes and the environment causing changes in how genes express themselves). Simply put, we’re gaining new knowledge about the human body’s response to exercise at the cellular level.
Our belief is that exercise is good medicine for all children, and especially for those with health challenges such as asthma, cerebral palsy and spina bifida. Our results are proving it. Large-scale and innovative investigations underway at our center are already helping kids move forward with their lives, despite the effects of their disabilities, illnesses or injuries.
Exercise, sleep, and growth and development in children are all deeply interconnected, each playing a critical role in the others. In 2022 we launched a new program to study the interactions between exercise and sleep and explore how balancing these factors is essential for the overall health of our children. For more information see Message from the SLEEP Health Program Director.
Based within UC Irvine Health School of Medicine — one of the nation’s top medical schools for research — the center is engaged in an array of pioneering exercise and sleep-science studies that can lead to breakthrough results for the next generation.
Our mission:
- To advance exercise and sleep medicine through cutting-edge clinical and laboratory research.
- To evaluate and refine preventive and rehabilitative exercise and sleep programs.
- To foster community partnerships that promote physical activity and sleep health across all age groups.