The Adamo Lab - Prevention in the Early Years Research Program
Jessica Puranda - Ph.D. Candidate
Jessica is a first year PhD student who fast-tracked from her MSc. She completed her HBSc. in Biomedical Science at the University of Ottawa in 2020. Her project will be characterizing reproductive health, bone health and musculoskeletal injury in female Canadian Armed Forces members. Jessica is also working on a review, in collaboration with Brock University and Laval University exploring integrating physical activity into usual prenatal care.

In her free time Jessica enjoys going to the gym, and listening to and playing music.
Nick O'Rourke - Ph.D. Student
Nick is a Ph.D. student that joined the Adamo lab in 2023. Nick was previously enrolled in a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine, looking at epigenetics in response to exercise and mitochondrial bioenergetics. In joining the Adamo lab, Nick has shifted his focus to human participants and exercise physiology. 
 
Nick's Ph.D. work will be multidisciplinary and will span many projects. He will work on some aspects of Smart Moms and accelerometry projects. Additionally, he will pursue a significant wet lab and bioinformatic component that will explore molecular and physiological outcomes of exercise in pregnancy.
 
Nick completed his Bachelor's (honours) and Master's in Kinesiology at Ontario Tech University (formerly UOIT). His undergraduate research focused on barriers to active transportation in older adults, looking at how the environment can promote or inhibit active transportation use. During his master's, he researched sedentary physiology and exercise immunology. Specifically, he examined how acute bouts of prolonged sitting and interrupting sitting with short bouts of activity can affect inflammatory biomarkers in saliva and blood. During his master's, Nick received the CIHR - CGS-M and OGS scholarships. Nick currently holds OGS-D. 
 
Nick was previously a soccer player for Dalhem IF in Gotland, Sweden, and in his spare time, he tries to continue playing as much soccer as possible and stay active. He also remains involved by coaching soccer in Ottawa. Besides trying to keep active, Nick likes to read books about evolutionary biology/biochemistry and interesting science topics and spend time with his two black cats.