Research Laboratories

Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory

Laura Frey Law, PT, Ph.D., Director

 

Location

1-118 Medical Education Building

Personnel

• Director: Laura Frey Law, PhD, PT
• Graduate Students:
  • Keith Avin, DPT (PhD Student, Rehabilitation Science)
    • Awarded NRSA Fellowship, 2008-2011
    • Awarded Kendall PhD Scholarship from APTA (2009)
    • Awarded APTA PODS I Fellowship (2009-2010)
  • Eric Allen, MPT, MS (PhD Student, Rehabilitation Science)
  • Jesse Heitsman, BSE (MS Student, Biomedical Engineering)
  • Allie Stockdale, BSE (MS Student, Biomedical Engineering)
• DPT Student Research Group:
  • Jeff Bitter, DPT Student
  • Brian Boese, DPT Student
  • Angela Hartwig, DPT Student
  • Leah Piotrowski, DPT Student
  • Kirsten Reck, DPT Student
  • Samantha Wiechman, DPT Student
• Undergraduate Research Assistants:
  • Krista Leibfried
  • Ankit Patel
  • Sara Hussain

Past Personnel

• PhD Graduates:
  • Jen Lee, PhD 2008 (Behavioral Medicine)
    • Awarded Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship in Aging, 2007
    • Awarded Seashore Dissertation Fellowship, 2008
• MS Graduates:
  • Andrea Laake, MSE 2008 (Mechanical Engineering)
    • Awarded 1st Place in Biological and Life Sciences Division for James F Jakobsen Conference, 2008
    • Awarded Best Poster for College of Engineering Research Day - Mechanical Engineering, 2008
  • Gary Pierce, MSE 2009 (Biomedical Engineering)
    • Awarded Best Poster for College of Engineering Research Day - Biomedical Engineering, 2008
• Other Student Researchers:
  • Tara McMullen, DPT (2005-2008)
    • Awarded IREU undergraduate scholarship in lab, 2006
  • Ayanna Porter, BS
    • SROP summer program student, 2007
  • Myles Melyon
    • Awarded ICRU undergraduate scholarship, 2007-2008
  • Devon Smith, M3
    • Summer medical student research, 2008
  • Alex Wittry, M3
    • Summer medical student research, 2008
  • Harris Hamsukuttym, PhD

Research Interests

• Musculoskeletal Pain & Fatigue
  • Experimental pain models in humans to investigate individual differences
    • Sex-differences
    • Personality
    • Genetics
    • Using intramuscular infusions, cold pressor task, or muscle fatigue
  • Factors contributing to fatigue differences
    • Sex-differences
    • Between-joint differences
  • Joint Strength & Fatigue
    • Modeling 3D strength surfaces
      • Males vs Females
      • Strength percentiles
      • Major joints: knee, elbow, shoulder, wrist, trunk, hip, ankle
      • For digital human modeling applications (in collaboration with the Virtual Soldier Research Group, Center for Computer-Aided Design)
    • Muscle activation strategies
      • Muscle co-contraction during strength testing
    • Modeling Fatigue
      • Joint-level 3-compartment model
        • Joint-specific models

Laboratory Resources

The Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory is a newly renovated space (~600 sq ft) aimed at studying neuromuscular (e.g., muscle activation strategies, EMG, reflex responses) and biomechanical (e.g., motion and force production) aspects of human movement. Major equipment includes:

• Biodex System # with Researcher's Toolkit
• 16 channel Bagnoli-16 (Delsys, Inc.) surface EMG
• Digitimer DS7A stimulator
• 100 Hz digital camera (Basler A602f)
• Infusion pump
• pH meter
• Somedic Pressure Pain Algometer
• Labview, Matlab, and MaxTraq 2D software packages
• Dell Precision Workstation, with dual SATA hard-drives (RAID configured)
• National Instruments M-series DAQ
• Dell Latitude 600 laptop
• National Instruments E-series DAQcard for portable EMG

Funding Sources

• International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP, International Collaborative Research Grant)
• National Institutes of Health (NIH, K12, K01, NRSA for student)
• American Pain Society (APS, Future Leaders in Pain grant)
• Department of Defense (through Virtual Research Soldier, VSR, program)
• United States Council for Automotive Research (USCAR, subcontract through VSR)
• Foundation for Physical Therapy (graduate student support in lab)
• Carver College of Medicine (Carver Medical Research Initiative Grant)