# Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium - Colorado Clinical Center

> **NIH NIH U01** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2023 · $2,000,000

## Abstract

MoTrPAC Project Summary
The Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium (MoTrPAC) will discover and characterize the
range of potential molecular transducers that underlie the health benefits of exercise in humans. MoTrPAC
was launched in 2016 with six adult Clinical Centers and a pediatric Clinical Center that have collaborated
to generate extensive Manuals of Operations to guide research protocols involving all aspects of clinical
operations (Phase I). Phase II began in the fall of 2019 with all Clinical Centers demonstrating excellent
progress toward initial recruitment goals and implementation of the protocol. The initial goal set forth by
the Consortium was to recruit 270 children (10-17 years of age) and 1,980 sedentary adults (aged 18+
years of age) who are randomized to endurance exercise training (170 youth, 840 adults), resistance
exercise training (840 adults), or no-exercise control (50 youth, 300 adults) interventions. Additional groups
of highly active endurance trained (50 youth, 150 adults) or resistance trained (150 adults) individuals
serve as comparator groups and do not undergo the MoTrPAC exercise interventions. The recruitment
and enrollment approaches are sex balanced, with participants across a wide age range (10-17, 18-39,
40-59, and 60+ age groups) and of different races and ethnicity. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some
MoTrPAC activities were suspended for more than a year, beginning in March 2020, with continued
constraints through 2022. Despite the numerous challenges encountered as a result of the pandemic,
recruitment activities at the adult and pediatric Clinical Centers have accelerated to a rate that is projected
to successfully achieve the target enrollment numbers by the end of the new award period. This led the
NIH Common Fund to release the current NOFO (RFA-RM-23-010) to provide MoTrPAC with funding to
complete recruitment and follow-up for the clinical studies, including finishing mechanistic randomized
controlled trials of sedentary adults and children and observational studies of highly active adults and
children. This will enrich the participant cohorts that are critical to understand the heterogeneity of exercise
adaptations across age, gender, and minority groups. This extension will enable MoTrPAC to complete
the intended goals as originally envisioned and will provide a more complete public database of the health
benefits of exercise and provide insight into how physical activity mitigates disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10840187
- **Project number:** 2U01AR071124-07
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Wendy M Kohrt
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $2,000,000
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2016-12-06 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10840187

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10840187, Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium - Colorado Clinical Center (2U01AR071124-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10840187. Licensed CC0.

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