PROJECTS:
1) Develop novel electrical stimulation protocols to treat spasticity after spinal cord injury.

A multidisciplinary collaboration between multiple spinal cord injury labs at the University of Washington. Our goals were to identify a spinal stimulation protocol that would specifically target spinal reflex pathways and restore them to a pre-injury like state.

Responsibilities
– Train and supervise junior lab members to conduct experiments
– Identify and test potential novel electrical stimulation therapeutics
– Develop implants and surgical techniques necessary for peripheral nerve implantation and spinal implantation
-Develop tools to analyze spinal reflex electrophysiology data with Python

2) Analyze the changes in psychology/emotion and pain processing after cervical spinal cord injury.
This project was designed and motivated by previous experiments that I had conducted in the lab that identified significant sex-differences in recovery after cervical spinal cord injury. We wanted to know if depression or anxiety-like behaviors or sex differences in pain signaling were significant factors influencing recovery.

Responsibilities
– Design experiments to evaluate emotional and pain responses after spinal cord injury
-Select potential anxiolytic compounds
– Coordinate experiments with multiple lab members

Postdoctoral Researcher (Senior Fellow)
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Feb 2018 – Mar 2023

PROJECT:
Develop a novel closed loop electrical stimulation therapeutic, targeted activity-dependent spinal stimulation, for the treatment of cervical spinal injury.

This project was my introduction to spinal cord injury. We were motivated by previous work in the lab (Mcpherson, 2015) to advance a closed-loop brain-computer-interface spinal stimulation protocol. We wanted to optimize the therapeutic protocol (duration, number of concurrent-closed loops) and evaluate males vs. females in recovery.

Responsibilities:
– Conduct experiments implemented closed-loop electrical stimulation for recovery of hand and arm function after cervical spinal cord injury.
-Conduct a highly detailed evaluation of multiple aspects of recovery (fine motor control, strength, range of motion, and locomotion)
-Test duration of therapy needed for long-term robust recovery
-Evaluate the novel therapy in males and females