In this issue:
Innovation and Success for Senior and Young Center Investigators

Symposia on Rehabilitation Research
August 2010 brought two international conferences to Providence and the Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine. 

Commencement of the DEKA Arm Study
Center Investigators, John Donoghue, Ph.D., together with Co-Investigator, Leigh Hochberg, M.D., Ph.D., have initiated work on their Merit Review Award funded project on neural control of a prosthetic arm.

Young Investigators Receive Fellowship Support
Congratulations to young Center Investigators; Matthew Williams, Ph.D., Julie Richardson, and Erik Taylor in achieving research fellowship funding.

Symposia on Rehabilitation Research

August 2010 brought two international conferences to Providence and the Center for Restorative and Regenerative Medicine. The 12th biennial Emed Scientific Meeting (ESM) was held in Providence on August 14-17, 2010. The conference was sponsored by Novel Electronics and hosted by the Center. Over fifty conference members participated in a workshop led by Susan D’Andrea, Ph.D., Director of the Gait and Motion Analysis Laboratory, which focused on the measurement and evaluation of dynamic foot pressures. The meeting consisted of two days scientific presentations featuring keynote lectures by Rushna Wunderlich of James Madison University and Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University. 

The 34th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Biomechanics was held in Providence August 18-21, 2010. Over 600 biomechanists attended the conference at the Rhode Island Convention Center. The meeting was a successful collaboration of the state of the art in biotechnology, techniques, and biomechanical research. The four-day conference included tutorials, tours, and presentations. Dr. D’Andrea was on the organizing committee and presented the work being done in the Gait and Motion Analysis Laboratory at the VA Medical Center to over 150 visiting scientists and students. Hugh Herr, Ph.D., associate professor at MIT, gave a demonstration of the PowerFoot prosthesis, a groundbreaking device recently tested at the Gait and Motion Lab. Tara Patterson, Ph.D., a postdoctoral, also led the tour through the rehabilitation work that is ongoing in the adjacent Neurorehabilitation Laboratory.      

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Center Investigators, John Donoghue, Ph.D., Professor of Neuroscience and Engineering at Brown University, Director of the Brown Institute for Brain Science, and a VA Senior Career Development Awardee, together with Co-Investigator, Leigh Hochberg, M.D., Ph.D., of the VA, Brown University, and Massachusetts General Hospital have initiated work on their Merit Review Award funded project on neural control of a prosthetic arm.  Their research aims to develop systems that might allow for humans with tetraplegia to control the DEKA arm using neural signals from the motor cortex region of the brain.  This research, in cooperation with the BrainGate2 clinical trial, has the potential to determine whether the brain command signals can be directly coupled to new, advanced prosthetic arms to provide dexterous control for veterans with amputations.

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Matthew Williams, Ph.D. received a VA Career Development Award for his project entitled, “Metabolic and Biomechanical Effects of Using a Powered Prosthetic Knee”. The program will conduct a metabolic and biomechanical analysis of a robotic prosthesis system for above knee amputees, investigating the benefits to walking speed, ease of walking, and walking comfort when using the powered prosthesis compared to a conventional knee-ankle prosthesis. Dr. Williams’ is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Hugh Herr’s MIT Media Laboratory and will work under Susan D’Andrea, Ph.D. in the Center’s Gait and Motion Analysis Laboratory.

Brown University Doctoral candidate in Biomedical Engineering, Julie Richardson received a VA Pre-doctoral Associated Health Rehabilitation Research Fellowship for, “Engineering Nanoscale Biomimetic Materials for Nerve Regeneration and Rehabilitation” under her Preceptor and Center Investigator, Diane Hoffman-Kim, Ph.D., and the VA Program Direction of Roy Aaron, M.D.  The project’s goals are to characterize neurite extension and investigate cellular dynamics on biomimetic topographical two-dimensional substrates and nerve guidance conduits.

Brown University Doctoral candidate in Biomedical Engineering, Erik Taylor received a VA Pre-doctoral Associated Health Rehabilitation Research Fellowship for, “Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPION) for Treatment of Implant Infection” under his Preceptor and Center Investigator, Thomas Webster, Ph.D., and the VA Program Direction of Roy Aaron, M.D.  The study focuses on fabricating and investigating various anti-bacterial nanoparticle chemistries that could be delivered directly to an infection site..

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