Research Interests

Musculoskeletal Pain and 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 and Fatigue
    • Modeling 3D strength surfaces
      • Males vs. Females
      • Strength percentiles
      • Major joints: knee, elbow, shoulder, wrist, trunk, hip, ankle
      • For digital human modeling application in collaboration with the Virtual Soldier Research Group and Center for Computer-aided Design
    • Muscle activation strategies
      • Muscle co-contraction during strength testing
    • Modeling Fatigue
      • Joint-level 3-compartment model< >Joint-specific modelsInternational 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) 

  • 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) 

The Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory is a newly renovated space (~600gsf) 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