Jayhawk Athletic Performance Lab

The Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance is funded by the Clara Wu and Joseph Tsai Foundation, and involves a collaborative effort between six primary institutions; Stanford University, the University of Oregon, the University of California-San Diego, the Salk Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, and the University of Kansas.

To seek the unknown principles of peak performance, so that they can be translated to youth development, athletic excellence, adult resiliency, and long, healthy lifespans.

Headquarters: The operational headquarters of the Alliance is housed at Stanford University, and includes oversight of research, communications and educational activities.

These are the major projects of the Alliance that address topics highly relevant to the mission of the Alliance and are often more basic in nature.

Stanford University: Moonshot 1 is the Digital Athlete project, which is designed to understand how athletes of all ages can train to achieve peak physical performance. By creating predictive models to guide training and treatment for athletes, the Digital Athlete will help improve human health for all.

University of Oregon: Moonshot 2 focuses on Regenerative Rehabilitation, which focuses on synergizing regenerative medicine and rehabilitation protocols to restore function to damaged tissues, and eventually decrease risk of injuries before they happen.

Salk Institute: Moonshot 3 is the Molecular Athlete project, which maps molecules and gene expression that occur during performance to help maximize performance, healing, and recovery. Additionally, the effect of various biorhythms on these outcomes is a particular emphasis.

University of California, San Diego: Moonshot 4 is the Multiscale Athlete, which synthesizes experimental measurements across biological scales to predict molecular and cellular states of tissues and their effects on whole body performance. Biological responses to training, sleep, diet, stress, injury, and other factors depend on the integration of the molecular, multicellular, and extracellular matrix dynamics that determine the functional states of tissues.

These are the more applied projects of the Alliance that address the interface with the end user (e.g., coach, high performer, sports medicine staff).

Boston Children’s Hospital: The Female Athlete Center Innovation Hub focuses on conducting female-specific translational research pertaining to the physiological, mental and sociological well-being of female athletes and innovating ways to improve the health of girls and women of all abilities through athletic participation and performance.

Stanford University: The Human Performance Laboratory Innovation Hub focuses on advancing the use of wearable sensors and other digital technologies to optimize athlete performance and health. It applies a design-focused approach to identify needs, invent solutions, and implement prototypes that address key bottlenecks in achieving this goal.

University of Kansas: The Jayhawk Athletic Performance Laboratory Innovation Hub translates scientific data to the playing field by working directly with coaches and athletes. Topics include sport technique, game strategy, training methods, sports biomechanics, sports physiology, psychological climate, determination of key performance indicators (KPIs), long-term athlete monitoring, and new sport technologies.

University of Oregon: The Bowerman Sports Science Center Innovation Hub is one of the pre-eminent distance running research centers in the world and focuses on the development of predictive biomarkers and AI-based algorithms to improve the performance and injury recovery of track and field athletes at the developmental, elite, and masters levels.

University of California, San Diego: The Triton Center for Performance and Injury Science Innovation Hub focuses on designing next-generation tools to acquire high-value tissue and cell samples from athletes, creating a repository of the resulting biospecimens, and translating discoveries from bioassay analysis to the clinic for the benefit of athletes and the public.