Health and Human Performance
Laboratory of Muscle and Environmental Physiology
Led by Orlando Laitano · Applied Physiology and Kinesiology
What we study
The lab studies muscle problems in sepsis and heat illness, using animal models and human patients. They focus on muscle weakness, inflammation, and sex differences in heat stress.
What working here is like
- Wet lab
- Clinical
- Human participants
- Mice
- Coding helps
- Projects
- 3
- Papers
- 5
Current projects
Skeletal muscle regeneration in sepsis
Studies how sepsis affects the ability of skeletal muscle to regenerate, using pre-clinical models built to reflect the complexities of clinical settings.
Sex differences in response to extreme heat stress
Studying why men and women react differently to heat illness.
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The Estrous Cycle Phase Influences Exercise Capacity Without Altering Dehydration in Mice During an Exertional Heat Stroke Protocol
The lab tests how female mice’s hormone cycle affects how long they can run in hot conditions. Students track body temperature and weight to see if the cycle changes heat‑stroke risk.
From the Spring 2025 UF Undergraduate Research Symposium · abstract book, p. 94
Summaries are written by AI in plain language from public symposium abstracts and may be imperfect.
Recent papers, explained
- Intestinal integrity after exertional heat stroke in mice at different phases of the estrous cycle
2026 · Physiology
Checks if female mice's estrous cycle phase affects heatstroke-induced gut damage.
- Validation of a Heat Tolerance Test (HTT) to distinguish mice exposed to exertional heat stroke
2026 · Physiology
Validates a heat test to distinguish mice with heatstroke from others with heat or LPS stress.
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- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy-linked Tnnc1 variants are associated with distinct myopathic changes in slow skeletal muscle of mice
2026 · Journal of Muscle Research and Cell Motility
Shows how HCM-linked gene variants affect slow skeletal muscle in mice.
- Optimization of Preclinical Rodent Research Models of Human Shock: Part 2 Trauma, Burn, and the Gut Microbiome
2026 · Shock
Tests how rodent models of trauma and burns help study immune and metabolic responses.
- Core temperature responses during passive heat exposure differentiate mice previously exposed to exertional heat stroke and endotoxemia
2026 · American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology
Tests how prior heat exposure affects core temperature in mice.
Plain-language summaries are AI-written and reviewed by us; check the paper for details.
How to reach out
Orlando Laitano hasn't set up this page yet. Their UF Scholars profile lists their publications.