The core will bring together faculty from the Departments of Orthopaedics, Neurology, Kinesiology, Bioengineering, Aerospace, Electrical & Computing Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, with the goals of better understanding the benefits and consequences of mechanical loading of bones, joints, and muscles in healthy and diseased populations and developing better surgical and non-surgical therapies for sports injuries. Outcomes of this research will extend from those performing complex movements at the highest levels of sport to those relearning to walk after amputation.
The Muscle Physiology Research Core will perform cutting-edge research in the areas of surgical and non-surgical therapies for sports injuries. Investigators from the Departments of Kinesiology, Physiology, Orthopaedics and the School of Nursing will study muscle physiology with a goal of developing safe, reliable and effective performance and endurance enhancement techniques for athletes and others at all levels. The NIH-funded Program in Muscle Biology within UMBSOM, as well as the tissue engineering efforts in the Department of Bioengineering and the medical robotics efforts in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will also play a critical role in these collaborative studies. This research activity will include a basic science component focusing on muscle physiology and biochemistry, as well as mechanisms of injury and repair, and a translational component focusing on the development of effective interventions.
The Biomechanics Laboratory will provide opportunities for innovation in research and discovery through a team science approach and significant offerings in the provision of occupational health testing and services for multiple constituencies. It will allow for the examination of balance, gait, forecasting of overuse injuries, and susceptibility to trauma in sport settings.
In addition, the lab will perform personalized evaluation of an individual’s movement patterns for possible alteration/prescription to enhance performance and prevent injury, assessment of the efficacy of rehabilitative exercises and surgical interventions, and the development of “smart” prosthetics and other appliances. The development of new technologies to monitor and measure human motion in controlled and on-field settings will allow for dynamic movement assessments, and therefore, for quantitative evaluations of sports performance-related outcomes after treatment for injuries or disorders.
Available technologies to address these issues will include:
Robotic assistive devices represent the future in rehabilitation and recovery for those who have suffered stroke, brain and spinal cord trauma, or nerve injury. Currently, faculty members in the Departments of Neurology and Physical Therapy and the Maryland Robotics Center of the Clark School of Engineering, are collaborating in the use of computer-controlled robotics to rehabilitate stroke patients. This UMD-UMBSOM collaboration will help move the University towards the forefront of this important field that aims to restore normal function and mobility.