Mera Launches Global Metabolic Testing Atlas With 500+ Verified Facilities

Mera has launched the Mera Metabolic Testing Atlas, a global directory of more than 500 verified sports performance, university and clinical testing facilities across 100+ countries.

The Atlas was created to solve a fairly simple problem: finding a place that actually performs metabolic and physiological testing is still surprisingly difficult.

Athletes looking for a VO2max or lactate test often find general fitness centers, equipment distributors or clinics that only offer body composition testing. Coaches and sports physiologists may know what type of test they need, but not which laboratory in a particular city has the right equipment or works with their sport. University laboratories can be even harder to find because many of them have strong testing capabilities but limited public visibility.

Mera built the Atlas around the testing itself rather than around general health and fitness services.

Users can search by country, city, testing method, sport, equipment and organization type.

Testing filters include VO2max / CPET, lactate, SmO2, RMR, sweat testing, DEXA, hypoxia and altitude, blood gases, BOD POD, FatMax, ECG, Wingate, isokinetic testing and heat chamber testing. Sport filters include running, cycling, rowing, CrossFit and Hyrox, with additional sport information shown in individual listings where available.

Users can also search directly for equipment and testing systems. This can be useful for a coach or physiologist looking for a laboratory with a particular metabolic cart, lactate analyzer or muscle oxygen system.

The Atlas separates performance, clinical, university and longevity facilities where this can be verified from public information.

Importantly, it is not intended to be a directory of every health or body composition center.

A facility that only provides DEXA, imaging or body composition analysis is not included simply because it measures something related to health or metabolism. DEXA can be useful, and it appears as a filter when a listed laboratory also provides relevant physiological testing. But DEXA-only and imaging-only facilities are kept out of the Atlas.

For inclusion, Mera looks for a public source confirming VO2max, CPET, lactate, respiratory gas analysis or another relevant physiological testing service.

For athletes, the goal is to make it easier to find a credible place to test. For coaches and sports physiologists, the Atlas can help identify laboratories that match a particular protocol, sport or equipment requirement. Testing facilities can use it to make their services and equipment easier to discover and can submit corrections when their information changes.

Mera is putting particular effort into academic laboratories as well. Many university exercise physiology and sports science labs have advanced testing capabilities but are difficult to discover outside their local academic networks. Making these laboratories easier to find can also be useful for researchers, students and international collaboration.

The current Atlas also shows how unevenly human performance testing infrastructure is distributed around the world.

The United States is the clear leader in the current database, with more than 100 identified testing facilities. Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany are also among the countries with the largest number of locations currently mapped. Türkiye, France, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Australia also have significant representation.

Because the Atlas is updated every week, these numbers continue to change as new facilities are verified and added.

The map also produced a few interesting geographical findings.

The northernmost continuously operating sports performance laboratory Mera has verified so far is in Tromsø, Norway, at roughly 69.7° north. The testing laboratory at UiT The Arctic University of Norway’s Regional Centre for Sport, Exercise and Health North was established in collaboration with Olympiatoppen and is an Olympiatoppen-certified laboratory. It provides aerobic capacity testing including VO2max, as well as anaerobic threshold and lactate profile testing.

The southernmost facility currently verified in the Atlas is CADI-UMAG at the Universidad de Magallanes in Punta Arenas, Chile, at roughly 53.1° south.

The university’s exercise physiology work includes cardiopulmonary exercise testing and VO2max assessment. Published research from CADI-UMAG describes maximal CPET performed with a COSMED Quark CPET system, OMNIA software and a Corival cycle ergometer. The center combines teaching, research and healthcare activities and has also been involved in research around physical capacity, aging and human physiology in extreme environments.

These locations are a good reminder that exercise physiology is not limited to major sports hubs in North America and Western Europe.

The Atlas is also a natural extension of what Mera is building.

Finding a laboratory is the first part of the problem. After a test is completed, athletes and coaches still need to understand what the results mean and how physiology is changing over time. Mera is building software for performance laboratories, teams and sports physiologists that turns physiological testing into digital reports, longitudinal athlete profiles and clearer analysis for coaches and athletes.

In that sense, the Atlas helps people find where to test, while the Mera platform is being built around what happens after the test.

The Atlas currently includes more than 500 facilities in more than 100 countries and is updated weekly. Mera continues to review new university laboratories, private performance centers and clinical exercise testing facilities.

Lab owners and universities can also submit a missing facility or update information about testing services, equipment, address or contacts. Every submission is reviewed before it is published.

Explore the Mera Metabolic Testing Atlas: mera.fit/atlas