Identifying general markers of stress and recovery is incredibly difficult given the diversity of functions of many genes and proteins expressed during stress. We are using high-throughput genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic approaches with measurement of true functional outcomes to understand what biomarkers are useful in what circumstances and how we can better mathematically model stress, recovery, overtraining or underrecovery, and successful adaptation.
Single biomarkers are not the answer to questions about stress, recovery, and adaptation.
One of our current aims is to use genome-wide and proteome-wide sequencing technologies to understand: 1) differences among individuals in stressed vs. recovered state, 2) differences in individuals who do not successfully recover or take longer to recover, 3) susceptibility factors that magnify the effect of stress on a particular individual, and 4) pathways that can be manipulated to increase resilience to stress, enhance recovery, and promote faster adaptation.