The Human Performance Innovation Center is a dedicated research facility focused on discovering and delivering methods to optimize performance across diverse populations.
Originally founded as a single building on the Health Sciences campus of West Virginia University in 1999, the Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute underwent a renaming in 2017 to become the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute (RNI). Since inception, the WVU RNI has rapidly expanded its physical footprint to include four centers and state-of-the-art operating rooms at our main campus in Morgantown, WV. In May 2019, the single dwelling that started this journey became known as the RNI Innovation Center. The RNI Innovation Center is now home to the Human Performance Innovation Center and is one of the most sophisticated human performance laboratories in the state of West Virginia and surrounding regions.
The core mission of the WVU RNI has always been to “Drive advances in science and innovation to improve population health and wellness.” At the Human Performance Innovation Center, we strive to advance this mission by optimizing performance through improved recovery and readiness across all communities partnered with the RNI. Our investigators are committed to pursuing all aspects of human performance research. Physiological, psychological, behavioral, environmental, and social – these aspects allow our investigators to draw more comprehensive conclusions on a team or individuals’ functional state.
While we primarily work with athletes and members of our military, our mission is to improve the daily lives of all communities through the use of innovative methodologies and novel technologies. The majority of our research is aimed at helping solve the problems we see in our field studies; injuries, stress, low performance, and other issues that can be directly addressed with our applied research. The Human Performance Innovation Center has had success in combatting these problems through the use of advanced data analytics, allowing our team to prescriptively apply modalities that build resiliency, enhance performance, and accelerate recovery.
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RNI In The News

Gold medalist and Marine Corp. among those benefiting from Human Performance Innovation Lab
The RNI’s Human Performance Innovation Center has created a living laboratory that is helping athletes get stronger cognitively, physically, and emotionally, as well as improving recovery with state-of-the-art technology.

WVU is using smart rings, apps and algorithms to identify COVID-19 infections before symptoms occur
For three years the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Center has equipped 30,000 people with smart rings and smartphone apps to determine, before any signs of illness, whether they had influenza.