Rick Cote’s aerobics class at the UNH Rec Center has been one of the most popular classes for several years. (Katelyn Dolan/Media Relations)

From Proteins to Push-ups
The Energetic Life of Professor Rick Cote

By John Reed, Media Relations

Amidst the sounds of high-tempo dance remixes of hip hop hits, many in the UNH aerobics class find themselves being led by a rather unexpected yet experienced instructor, Rick Cote, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology.

From 4:15 to 5:15 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Cote leads the class through an intense session of muscle toning and cardiovascular exercise, all the while keeping it fun. “Our standard class is a combo of strengthening and cardiovascular exercise. The first 15 to 20 minutes we do muscle training and the second half hour we do a traditional aerobic workout,” Cote said.

Cote began teaching both biochemistry and aerobics in 1988 when he arrived at UNH. While teaching biochemistry is the result of Cote’s passion for researching proteins and enzymes, teaching step aerobics came from his love of dance and desire to stay in shape.

“I got into aerobics to stay in shape, I was taking a class and I thought, ‘I can teach this.’ Also, I knew if I was teaching the class, I would show up,” Cote said. He also loves dancing, which was another incentive to teach a dance aerobics-style class. “I grew up taking dance classes and wanted to keep it in my life,” he said.

However Cote soon discovered that teaching aerobics wasn’t as easy as it looked. “It took me a couple of years to get the expertise to really become good at teaching the class,” he said. “I found that it’s more than just following the music. You have to come up with a routine, and you have to be thinking several steps ahead of the class.”

In addition to teaching the standard aerobics classes, Cote also instructs the “cardio funk dance party,” which combines hip hop, dance music and popular dance moves seen on MTV, Cote said. “The class tends to be at a slower pace (than traditional aerobics) because it is more hip hop-oriented,” he said.

Cote brings what he does in the aerobics studio into the biochemistry classroom by referring to exercise to help students understand how proteins and enzyme work at the molecular level. “When I teach general biochemistry classes, I try to incorporate exercise physiology into understanding metabolic pathways like energy metabolism. I’ll give examples of how different types of muscle fibers are used differently depending on the different types of exercise,” he said.

Teaching the aerobics class also helps break down formal barriers between students and faculty. “A lot of students can see that I’m silly and playful in my aerobics classes, and yet pretty knowledgeable about biochemistry when I’m in the classroom. I think it makes me seem a little less intimidating and more approachable as a professor,” Cote said.

When he is not lecturing or teaching aerobics, Cote, a senior researcher in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, heads up a team of undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and technicians investigating the biochemistry of vision.

It is as a researcher that Cote entertains his passion for unlocking the secrets of proteins and enzymes, which began in his graduate student days at the University of Wisconsin. “People wonder why I work so hard. I do it because I really love what I do,” he said.
His research, funded by the National Institute for Health, focuses on the enzymes controlling the initial steps of the vision process. “We are looking at the very first reactions that occur whenever you see something,” he said.

Cote’s work is critical to understanding how the proteins that control the vision process function normally. Once this is achieved, Cote hopes that scientists will better understand what goes wrong in the retinas of people who experience visual disorders or a total loss of vision. “Our research on the proteins critical to the visual pathway ultimately will help arrest or prevent some retinal degenerative diseases that result from defective versions of these proteins,” Cote said.

Cote also believes that his research plays a vital role in his success in the classroom with undergraduate and graduate students. “My research keeps my teaching fresh because it keeps me up to date with all the new advances in biochemistry, instead of simply teaching the same thing out of a textbook year after year,” he said.

Whether in his role as a professor, researcher, aerobics instructor, father, or domestic partner, Cote invests each with equal energy. “It can be a bit schizophrenic, trying to juggle the lab, classroom, and aerobics studio with a commitment to being a great father and loving partner at home. Let’s just say I don’t sleep too much!”