Harnessing Human Energy: How Manipulating Metabolism Can Affect Exercise Performance

The human body is constantly on the move, requiring fuel to operate at the highest capacity. Metabolism is the process by which the body changes food and drink into energy. It’s an important process within the human body, but what if that process is manipulated? What if metabolism didn’t occur? And perhaps most importantly, how would that affect the human body?

Paige Ponzo ’25, a Health Sciences major from Wilmington, Del., is working on a project called “Effects of Acetly-CoA Carboxylase 2 (ACC2) Deletion in Voluntary Wheel Running” under the direction of Associate Professor of Health Science Stephen Kolwicz as a part of the Ursinus College Summer Fellows research program.

ACC2 is a type of enzyme that limits organisms from using fats to create energy. In Kolwicz’s Heart and Muscle Metabolism (HaMM) lab, Ponzo is looking at how the gene affects metabolism, which in turn affects exercise performance.

By using groups of mice with different characteristics, she is able to analyze the metabolic organs and blood levels from sedentary and physically active model organisms to test if there is a significant relationship between the existence of the ACC2 enzyme, energy metabolism, and the level of exercise performance.

Ponzo’s Summer Fellows research is a continuation of work she previously did in the past. Last summer, she investigated the basic effects of ACC2 on exercise. This go round, she decided to examine a wider range of characteristics, such as sex and mitochondria function, to further understand the effects of the ACC2 gene.

So far, Ponzo has discovered that some differences exist between how the ACC2 affects different sexes, but nothing of statistical significance yet.

Ponzo’s participation in the Summer Fellows program is years in the making. She originally started as a part of the FUTURE Research program after her first year at Ursinus and returned to be a part of that same program as a mentor last summer.

“Once I got into FUTURE, I was put into Dr. Kolwicz’s lab and loved the research in a fun environment,” said Ponzo. “I love doing research and I’m more of a hands-on learner, so this is great for me.”

Ponzo’s residency on-campus has also allowed her to collaborate with many faculty advisors and other students that she wouldn’t usually see over a regular school year.

“There are so many different majors doing different projects with different faculty members and it’s cool to meet his people that I would’ve most likely never met otherwise,” Ponzo said.