Research Facilities

The faculty of the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science are active in many research labs throughout the university. Brief summaries of those labs and projects are included below.

• Brain Behavior Laboratory
• Diabetes Research Laboratory
• Functional Performance Laboratory
• Neuromuscular Research Laboratory

Brain Behavior Laboratory

Research conducted in the Brain Behavior Laboratory seeks to aid our understanding of the relationships between patterns of neural activation and functional ability. This focus allows the description of the relationships between lesion location, potential for neuroplastic change and recovery from brain damage. Primary areas of study are recovery from stroke, and the rehabilitation of individuals with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. The Brain Behavior Laboratory houses a state of the art computing system designed for the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data as well as multiple workstations for the collection and processing of behavioral data.

Diabetes Research Laboratory

Drs. Stehno-Bittel, Smirnova and Searls work collaboratively to study the effects of chronic diabetes on rat cardiovascular system.

Dr. Stehno-Bittel leads the work examining the connective tissue changes surrounding vessels. More recently, she has been involved in refining the protocol of isolating insulin producing beta-islets for transplantation in diabetic rats. This project focuses on finding measurable markers that can be used to predict the quality of isolated beta-islets and their suitability for the transplantation.

Dr. Smirnova heads the work on diabetes and heart tissue. She is interested in the cellular signaling involved in the pathological processes associated with diabetes, and how various interventions, including physical training, can help to protect the damaged diabetic heart.

Dr. Searls studies the signaling pathways triggered by diabetes in the vascular smooth muscle cells, including calcium mobilization and transcription factor activation affected by the hyperglycemia.

All investigators are examining the effects of endurance exercise on the negative consequences associated with chronic diabetes. The goal is to determine whether exercise training can directly thwart the long term effects of diabetes on the tissues studied.

The Diabetes Research Laboratory includes several research facilities:

The main laboratory is fully equipped to conduct different aspects of basic research using a variety of cellular, immunological, biochemical and molecular techniques. It houses a tissue culture facility, Langendorf perfusion system, electrophoresis units and transblotting apparati for protein and nucleic acid separation and detection, MRXII Microplate Reader, refrigerated glass door box and several freezers for sample storage.

Enwemeka Rehabilitation Research Lab houses custom built treadmill for endurance training of diabetic rats and mice with Parkinson’s disease.

Ruth Blanchard Cardiovascular Physiology Lab is set up to evaluate experimental animal physiology. It houses a state-of-the-art pressure-volume system with Millar microtip catheters to measure the hemodynamic parameters of rat heart, and a rodent calorimeter with an enclosed treadmill to evaluate animal’s metabolic performance.

Microscope Imaging and Patch Clamping Lab houses a state-of-the-art Olympus confocal microscope and patch clamp system. This is the site of calcium signaling studies, quantitative and qualitative evaluation of proteins of interest in cells and tissues, beta-islet viability determination, and many others studies.

Functional Performance Laboratory

The Functional Performance Laboratory is under the direction of Drs. Kluding and Pohl. This research lab is fully equipped with exercise and functional training equipment. The primary focus of the research undertaken in this lab is the study of functional performance and physical therapy interventions for older adults and adults with stroke.

Dr. Kluding’s work includes an investigation on the effect of ankle joint mobilizations and functional training on improving function in adults with hemiplegia post-stroke, and the effect of ankle joint mobilizations on improving function for patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy. Dr. Pohl’s research interest has been the control and learning of human movement in older adults and adults post-stroke. Her current work examines task effects on procedural learning in stroke survivors, and dual task performance in adults with stroke. A collaborative project with Drs. Boyd, Kluding and Pohl will examine whether people with both diabetes and stroke respond differently to exercise than people with stroke alone.

Neuromuscular Research Laboratory

Recent Grants