By Emily Ford
eford@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó Kenny Miller, 22, makes no bones about why he joined one of the first human trials at the N.C. Research Campus.
“I needed $400,” he said.
An unemployed short-order cook, Miller and nine other men qualified last week as subjects for a metabolism study. Five additional men will serve as alternates.
The opportunity to participate in scientific research interested Miller, who lives in Kannapolis.
“I figured I could help the world out,” he said. “This is something to change the way people look at health and the human body.”
More than 40 men asked to enroll, said Dr. David Nieman, director of the Appalachian State University Human Performance Lab in Kannapolis. Nieman will conduct the 10-week study in collaboration with the UNC Nutrition Research Institute.
“When you have $400 involved, we knew it would get people out,” he said. “But we’ve been very grateful for the response.”
The study should determine whether exercise has a long-term affect on metabolism.
“It’s the first major human trial at the NCRC,” Nieman said. “We are very proud of that and very hopeful that this will advance science.”
The men will take turns living for four nonconsecutive days in a metabolic chamber at the Research Campus, the $1.5 billion biotechnology hub in downtown Kannapolis founded by Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock.
The metabolic chamber, one of 11 in the country, looks like a tiny hotel room and measures metabolism over 24 hours to within 40 calories. Subjects will eat, sleep and exercise in the chamber.
To pass the time, Miller said he will search online for a job.
Steven Harper of Richfield also qualified for the study and plans to join additional trials at the Research Campus.
“A future lab rat,” joked his mother, Nora Harper, while her son pedaled a stationary bike during a fitness test called a VO2 max, when a subject exercises to exhaustion to measure maximal aerobic capacity.
Steven Harper already has had a brush with fame. Three years ago, he and his friends were plucked off a mountainside in Phoenix during a one-skid helicopter rescue that aired on CNN.
Nieman did not recruit women for this study because their menstrual cycles and hormonal surges can influence metabolism, he said.
“We need to have as homogeneous a group as possible,” he said.
Men who were turned away because the study was full could serve as subjects for other projects, Nieman said.
“As people establish relationships with us, we might be able to use them in the future,” he said.