Projects

The three key contributions of my current research work are:

1) Mechanistic clinical trials of exercise to improve foundational scientific knowledge related to exercise-induced adaptations, particularly in people with diabetes,

2) Innovative paradigms to evaluate movement relevant to physical therapist practice, and

3) Research capacity building in the rehabilitation health professions.

Current Research Work

Mechanistic Clinical Trials of Exercise

Lifestyle interventions such as exercise are the cornerstones of managing chronic diseases (particularly diabetes), however, there is limited evidence explaining why exercise works in some cases but not others. Mechanistic clinical trials, which assess whether and how an exercise intervention works, are urgently needed, but are herculean undertakings because recruitment, retention and fidelity are resource-intensive.

Innovative Movement Assessment

We recently completed several studies showing that joint movements estimated with markerless motion capture are comparable to traditional marker-based approaches in clinical and sport specific tasks and yoga.

We have also integrated markerless motion capture with novel wireless biosignal acquisition such as high density electromyography and muscle network connectivity analysis.

Research Capacity Building

I lead CCL-IGNITE, a collaboration between NYU Steinhardt faculty in rehabilitation health professions research (including physical therapy, occupational therapy, communicative sciences and disorders, vision research, limb loss, music therapy, drama therapy and art therapy) and education research and College and Career Lab (CCL). CCL IGNITE offers a research pipeline for middle school and high school students, and creates novel science education resources based on NYU Steinhardt’s state-of-the-art rehabilitation research.