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Tom D. Brutsaert

Professor

Department of Exercise Science

Contact

315.443.9697 tdbrutsa@syr.edu

Department

Location

Barclay Hall, #430G
Syracuse, New York, 13244

Biography

Professor Brutsaert has broad interests in how gene and environment interact to produce variation in human athletic ability and health and disease. He conducts field research on high altitude natives in the Andes, with some focus on gas exchange and the control of breathing. He and his collaborators have been using genome-wide approaches to elucidate the genetic basis of variation in specific altitude adaptive traits in several Andean populations, including the Quechua, in Peru, and the Aymara, in Bolivia. Brutsaert also has a laboratory-based program that focuses on how early life (intrauterine) developmental effects influence later-life adult exercise capacity, physical activity, body composition, the response to training, and the future risk for chronic disease. Several projects in this area have been conducted with US college-aged students and with rural children in Costa Rica. For the latter, the interest is in whether early life conditions program physical activity patterns and muscle function during childhood. In addition to his research interests, Brutsaert helps to coordinate the Human Performance Laboratory (HPL) at Syracuse University, and is the director of the Altitude Simulation Laboratory (ASL). The ASL houses a human-scale hypoxia chamber that is large enough to accommodate several test subjects and investigators during metabolic and/or exercise testing under simulated altitude conditions up to 20,000 feet. Brutsaert holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Anthropology and collaborates with faculty at the SUNY Upstate Medical Institute of Human Performance (IHP) which houses clinical facilities and advanced imaging and muscle function technologies.

Education

  • Ph.D., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
  • M.A., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, . Major: Biological Anthropology
  • M.S., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, . Major: Human Nutrition
  • B.S., Northeastern University, Boston, MA, . Major: Biology

Teaching

Currently Teaching

  • EXE 764 - Internship in Exercise Science
  • EXE 339 - Physiology of Exercise
  • EXE 700 - Selected Topics - Human Perform in Extreme Elemt

Active Research

Sponsored Research

  • Tom Brutsaert (PD/PI) , The adaptive significance of large spleen volume and splenic contraction in Sherpa at high-altitude - National Science Foundation - Federal Agencies Grant. End Date: 2026-08-31
  • Tom Brutsaert (PD/PI) , Adaptive Evolution of the EPAS1 Gene in High-Altitude Andeans: Collaborative Research: - National Science Foundation - Federal Agencies Grant. End Date: 2026-07-31
  • Tom Brutsaert (PD/PI) , Protection Against Hypoxia-Induced Pulmonary Hypertension - University of Pennsylvania - Federal Agencies Subcontract (Prime = Contract). End Date: 2026-06-30

Published Scholarship

Publications

  • Romanowski, S.M., Steffen, C.G., Burkhart, A.J., Chirinos, J.A., Smith, D.L., Day, T.A., Bigham, A.W., Brutsaert, T.D. and Lefferts, W.K., 2025. Large artery and cerebral pulsatile hemodynamics during high-altitude sojourn. Journal of Applied Physiology, [online] 139(5), pp.1312–1321. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00412.2025.
  • Bushfield, N.V., Johnson, N.A., Dickenson, J.A., MacKenzie, B.W.L., Isakovich, R., Kalker, A., Bouten, J., Strzalkowski, N.D.J., Harman, T.S., Holmström, P., Kunwar, A.J., Thakur, N., Dhungel, S., Sherpa, N., Bigham, A.W., Brutsaert, T.D. and Day, T.A., 2025. No altitude required: differential ventilatory and blood acid-base homeostasis between unacclimatized lowlanders and Tibetan highlanders at 1,400 m. Journal of Applied Physiology, [online] 139(4), pp.1064–1072. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00619.2025.
  • Dickenson, J.A., Harman, T.S., Kunwar, A.J., Thakur, N., Dhungel, S., Sherpa, N., Bigham, A.W., Brutsaert, T.D., Day, T.A. and Strzalkowski, N.D.J., 2025. Incremental ascent to 4300 m does not alter standing balance in lowlanders or Tibetan highlanders. European Journal of Applied Physiology. [online] https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-025-05764-8.
  • Day, T.A., Bigham, A.W. and Brutsaert, T.D., 2025. Reply to Kleinsasser and Burtscher: Superimposed acclimatization and adaptation to low and high altitudes in highlanders compared to lowlanders. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [online] 122(24). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2505709122.
  • Johnson, N.A., Dickenson, J.A., MacKenzie, B.W.L., Isakovich, R., Kalker, A., Bouten, J., Strzalkowski, N.D.J., Harman, T.S., Holmström, P., Kunwar, A.J., Thakur, N., Dhungel, S., Sherpa, N., Bigham, A.W., Brutsaert, T.D. and Day, T.A., 2024. Comparing integrative ventilatory and renal acid–base acclimatization in lowlanders and Tibetan highlanders during ascent to 4,300 m. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, [online] 122(1). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2412561121.
  • Dickenson, J.A., Debenham, M.I.B., Dalton, B.H., Harman, T.S., Kunwar, A.J., Thakur, N., Dhungel, S., Sherpa, N., Bigham, A.W., Brutsaert, T.D., Day, T.A. and Strzalkowski, N.D.J., 2025. Vestibular-evoked balance responses are blunted in lowlanders and Tibetan highlanders with ascent to 4300 m. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, [online] 50, pp.1–10. https://doi.org/10.1139/apnm-2025-0191.
  • Brutsaert, T.D. et al., 2024. Larger spleens and greater splenic contraction during exercise may be an adaptive characteristic of Nepali Sherpa at high-altitude. Am J Hum Biol, 36(9), p.e24090.
  • Isakovich, R. et al., 2024. Using modified Fenn diagrams to assess ventilatory acclimatization during ascent to high altitude: Effect of acetazolamide. Exp Physiol, 109(7).
  • Holmström, P.K., Harman, T.S., Kalker, A., Steiner, B., Hawkins, E., Jorgensen, K.C., Zhu, K.T., Kunwar, A.J., Thakur, N., Dhungel, S., Sherpa, N., Day, T.A., Schagatay, E.K., Bigham, A.W. and Brutsaert, T.D., 2024. Differential splenic responses to hyperoxic breathing at high altitude in Sherpa and lowlanders. Experimental Physiology, [online] 109(4), pp.535–548. https://doi.org/10.1113/ep091579.
  • Holohan, J.D., DeBlois, J.P. and Brutsaert, T.D., 2023. The Reliability of the WAnT-Swim, a Novel Laboratory-Based, Swim-Specific Anaerobic Capacity Test Performed Using a Swimming Ergometer. Measurement in Physical Education and Exercise Science, [online] 28(2), pp.182–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/1091367x.2023.2273304.

Presentations

  • Brutsaert, T.D., 2022. Factors affecting the exercise performance of highland natives in the Andes and Himalayas. In 8th World Congress of Chronic Hypoxia.
  • Brutsaert, T.D., 2022. The genetic, epigenetic, and developmental architecture of oxygen transport traits in highland natives. In Lahiri-Cherniak Symposium. Hypoxia Group of the American Physiological Society.
  • Brutsaert, T.D., 2018. Evidence that the high VO2max in hypoxia of Peruvian Quechua marks a genetic adaptation to high altitude. In 13th Annual Meeting of the International Conference on Genomics. BGI.
  • Brutsaert, T.D., 2016. Revisiting the Quechua high-altitude adaptive phenotype: Exploration of an old question using a new large Peruvian genotype-phenotype data set. In Center for Physiological Genomics. University of California.
  • Brutsaert, T.D., 2015. Human Adaptation to High Altitude: A half-century of study in Biological Anthropology. In Syracuse University, Dept of Anthropology Speaker Series.
  • Brutsaert, T.D., 2012. Evidence for the Genetic Adaptation of Peruvian Highland Natives: Results of a Large-Scale Genome Wide Association Study Conducted in the Andes. In Leh High Altitude Symposium.
  • Howard, J.A. et al., 2015. Pulmonary volume is associated with maximal exercise capacity in hypoxia. In ACSM Annual Meeting.
  • Breidenstein, A.M. et al., 2014. Genetic evidence for natural selection at the high-altitude candidate gene, EGLN1. In American Association of Physical Anthropologists, 83rd Annual Meeting.
  • Isherwood, J.L. et al., 2014. Genetic responses to life at high altitude: Arterial oxygen saturation in Peruvian Quechua. In Abstracts - AAPA Presentations.
  • Garcia, O.A. et al., 2014. Positive Selection in smallpox associated genes among Mesoamericans. In American Society of Human Genetics, 64th Annual Meeting.

Active Service

University

  • member, Graduate Faculty Council, (active since: 2025)

Professional Service

  • Reviewer/Referee, Allyn and Bacon Publisher
  • Reviewer/Referee, American Journal of Human Biology
  • Reviewer/Referee, American Journal of Physical Anthropology
  • Reviewer/Referee, American Journal of Respiratory Critical Care
  • Reviewer/Referee, Annals of Human Genetics
  • Reviewer/Referee, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology
  • Reviewer/Referee, European Journal of Applied Physiology
  • Reviewer/Referee, European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
  • Reviewer/Referee, High Altitude Medicine and Biology
  • Reviewer/Referee, Journal of Applied Physiology
  • Reviewer/Referee, Journal of Experimental Biology
  • Reviewer/Referee, Journal of Thrombosis
  • Reviewer/Referee, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise
  • Reviewer/Referee, National Science Foundation
  • Reviewer/Referee, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
  • Reviewer/Referee, PLOS One
  • Reviewer/Referee, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • Reviewer/Referee, Respiratory Physiology and Neurobiology
  • Editor, Advisory Editorial Board, Sports Sciences for Health (active since: 2015)
  • Editor, Editorial Board, High Altitude Medicine and Biology (active since: 2003)

Honors, Awards, and Recognition

  • Fulbright Specialist Award, North East Hill University

Department

Location

Barclay Hall, #430G
Syracuse, New York, 13244