Andrew Koutnik

Andrew Koutnik is a researcher, Type-1 Diabetic, and patient advocate at University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine and IHMC studying the influence of nutrition and metabolism on health, disease, and performance. He originally began his research path at Florida State University in the Exercise Science studying the influence of nutrition, exercise, supplementation, and environmental extremes on health-based outcomes in normal and clinical populations resulting in several original research publications. From Florida State University, Andrew was awarded the Presidential Fellowship to undergo Biomedical Research with the Metabolic Therapeutics Lab at University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine with a focus on studying metabolism and metabolic therapies for health, disease, and performance outcomes resulting in numerous research publications. While at USF, Andrew also developed and implemented multiple research projects on NASA NEEMO 22 as a part of USF and IHMC research team. In 2018, Andrew was selected to participate in TEDxUSF event where he presented on Nutrition and Type-1 Diabetes. Personally, Andrew Koutnik uses exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle factors to manage Type-1 Diabetes for over 12 years. Type-1 Diabetes has and continues to give an incredible in-depth personal journey into the world of our metabolism, how it works, how day-to-day life (sometimes moment-by-moment choices) influences it, and how these changes on metabolism can have far reaching effects over other aspects of our physiology. This combination of researching nutrition and exercise, but also dealing with its benefits and consequences daily as a Type-1 Diabetic, created a strong appreciation for the metabolic role nutrition and lifestyle can play into disease prevention and management.