September/October 2015

PIONEER

VOLUME X | SEPT/OCT 2015 | ISSUE 1

THEPIONEER.GATECH.EDU

STARTUP Read about how Monitor Med Students turned their Capstone project into a startup

From the Editor in Chief PIONEER Greetings all, With the new semester comes new beginnings and we at the Pioneer welcome all faces, both new and old, to yet another exciting year! To all freshmen and transfer students, we invite you with open arms as you embark on a new chapter of your academic journey and hope you come to learn what it means to be a part of the Biomedical Engineering Department here at Georgia Tech. To everybody else, we’re glad you’re back – keep doing what you’re doing and stay excellent.

For the past month, the Pioneer staff has been busy assembling a new issue to open up the academic year. Featured in this issue, we have a featured series of spotlight articles to pique your interest. The first is an Industry Spotlight highlighting the BME Capstone-born startup Monitor Med Solutions and company CEO Bailey Ernstes and the challenges of commercializing their smart platform for detecting shunt malfunction. The second is a Biotech Review highlighting the technologies and techniques in use in the Ethier laboratory to investigate glaucoma and other diseases of the eye. The third is an Engineering Abroad article (a new series!) talking about Dr. Manu Platt’s recent research in Ethiopia whilst investigating breast cancer in the local population and the challenges of modifying diagnostic tests and tools to the resources available in the surrounding environment. In addition to these three, we have an Engineering Toolbox in which one of our writers reflects upon the lessons learned from minor assignments in 2310 and our Impulses series focusing on the undergraduate BME experience.

For more regular updates on the happenings of the biotechnology community, feel free to like our Facebook page at facebook.com/gtpioneer and take a glance at more online content at thepioneer.gatech.edu. If you would like, you can also reach us by e-mail at thepioneer@gatech.edu. Thank you for your continual support, and we hope you enjoy this issue!

Established 2007

EDITOR IN CHIEF Jonathan Austin

FACULTY SPONSOR Barbara Fasse, Ph.D. OPERATIONS SECRETARY TREASURER PUBLIC RELATIONS

Tino Zhang Sameer Mishra

Hee Su Lee Tanvi Rao

WEBMASTERS Shehab Attia Kelsey Williams

STAFF WRITERS Anirudh Joshi

Abhinaya Uthayakumar Akanksha Bhatia Shanzeh Farooqui Sarah Gonzales Brandon Holt Ann Johnson Yinglin Li Andrew McNair Alaap Murali Dhara Patel Tanvi Rao Erik Sampayo Linda Tian Nadiya Zafar

EDITORS Catherine Chou

Nader Abdullahi Andrew Akers Sruti Bheri Alexis Blazier Julie Chow Hardika Dhir Elizabeth Johnson Amanda Klinker Meera Nathan Likhit Nayak Melanie Yoshimura

LAYOUT EDITORS Joy Kim

Until Next Time, Jonathan Austin Editor-in-Chief Pioneer

Candice Cheung Diane Nguyen Pearly Pandya Michelle Tourchak

PHOTOGRAPHERS Morgan Hinchey

INSIDE PIONEER SELECTED PUBLICATIONS…………………….………….………….....…...…...….......3 IMPULSES..................................................…….………………….…….…….……….....4 BIOTECH...............................………………..……...…………..…..…...………...............5 BME ANSWERS....................…………..…………………..…..…..…...………...............6

That’s so BME...................................................................................................6 TOOLBOX..........................................……………..….…...……….….......…………........7

Dustin Blohm Wanda Chen Paige McQuade Anokhi Patel Maya Rajan Connor Sofia Hyunjun (Fred) Woo Jimmy Zhou

COLLABORATORS Karen Adams

Paul Fincannon Courtney Lucas Ferencik Sally Gerrish Zeena Ammar Ross Ethier MIchale Harrington Alix Macklin William Sessions Lena Ting

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

By Sarah Gonzales

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

Muscadine grape skin extract can antagonize Snail-cathepsin L-mediated invasion, migration and osteoclastogenesis in prostate and breast cancer cells.

Burton LJ, Smith BA, Smith BN, Loyd Q, Nagappan P, McKeithen D, Wilder CL, Platt MO, Hudson T, Odero-Marah VA. Carcinogenesis.

In regards to cancer, muscadine grapes are the grapes of wrath.

Researchers in the Platt lab have recently discovered that muscadine grapes skin extract (MSKE) can be used as a treatment in prostate and breast cancer, In addition to being an excellent source of fiber, purple muscadine grape skin contains anthocyanin.

This bioactive agent is capable of antagonizing snail-cathepsin L-mediated invasion, migration and osteoclastogenesis in cancer cells without disturbing healthy normal cells. No studies have been published as of yet whether or not wine may be a suitable source of anthocyanin.

A three-dimensional image processing program for accurate, rapid, and semi-automated segmentation of neuronal somata with dense neurite outgrowth.

Ross JD, Cullen DK, Haris JP, LaPlaca MC, DeWeerth SP. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy.

Tired of squinting at neurons? Wondering if you counted those little buggers twice? Do artifacts keep you up at night? Well, weep no more because researchers in the LaPlaca lab have a solution for you and your brain slicing needs. With an advanced three dimensional image processing program, you can view your neuronal somata in practically pornographic detail. No longer will researchers be forced to decide whether to identify cell nuclei segemtation or tracing of cell neurites. This handy dandy doohickey does both with over 96% accuracy. Keep brain slicing my friends.

INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT......………….…......…………...……..……….………..…..........8 ABROAD.............................................................................................................................10 PRE-HEALTH......................................................…….………………….…….….….………..12

William Sessions RESEARCH...............….….…......…………...…………..………..........….........13 Dr. Lena Ting

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3 IMPULSES

BIOTECH PAGE TITLE

IMPULSES

DR. ROSS ETHIER

def: a driving force or motivation; an impetus

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

By Brandon Holt

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By Linda Tian and Morgan Hinchey

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

ZEENA AMMAR

5th Year, BME

Do you do any research here at Georgia Tech?

I did do research my freshman and sophomore year at Tech, but now I do research at Emory with a group called the Grady Trauma Project.

What do you do with the Grady Trauma Project?

It’s actually in their neuroscience department. They work with people with PTSD, they try to look at like, what genetic components, and a nature vs. nurture type thing. So they look at genetics of the people and then how they were raised, and what components, mixed together, brought about their PTSD. It’s interesting.

3rd Year, BME

ALIX MACKLIN

What kind of research do you do?

It’s a neuro-mechanics lab, Dr. Ting’s, and her lab actually moved to Emory to get closer to the rehabilitation center. We’re currently not in Whitaker anymore, but the cool thing about her lab is that we have graduate students from Emory, grad students from Georgia Tech in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, so it’s really inter-disciplinary. It’s a combination of mechanical engineering and biomechanics and also looking at how the brain functions. So what our muscles do and the way we move tell us about different brain issues like neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease.

MICHAEL HARRINGTON

MAR ISSUE 5

5th Year, BME

What was a really memorable BME course you took?

What comes to my mind is Dr. Platt’s Cell Physiology. He was very enthusiastic and answered a lot of questions and he helped me realize that I wasn’t that good of a public speaker. I’m not as good as I’d like to be yet. For the class, we had to come up with a different use for a current drug on the market and we had to give a business pitch. In the whole presentation, I was very scientific going about it and went into way too much detail. He helped me realize that you really need to think about who your audience is and target them. It’s a business pitch and I needed to sell the idea rather than talk about the brain or what the drug was targeting.

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r. Ross Ethier, a professor and researcher in the Biomedical Engineering department, heads a highly technical and specialized lab focusing on ocular research, and in particular glaucoma. As the nature of biotechnology is evolving, labs require cutting-edge equipment to better understand their research and make advancements in their field. Dr. Ethier’s lab is no exception, as glaucoma is a complex condition, the study of which requires an in depth understanding and inventive solutions. For those unfamiliar with glaucoma, the name itself is representative of a number of diseases that lead to damage of the eye that can eventually cause blindness.

The eye itself is a highly sensitive system and the four main causes of glaucoma are age, race, family, and pressure with the lattermost the only cause that can currently be fixed by modern medicine. For this reason, Ethier’s lab has several pieces of equipment that deal with measuring miniscule fluctuations of pressure within a patient’s eye. iPerfusion is a device with rows of differential pressure transducers to monitor pressure, high accuracy flow sensors, and capillaries (with known resistances) used to calibrate the machine. It measures positive pressure in the eye with a flow resolution as low as 100 picoleters per second, and it controls pressure in the eye through a feedback loop. This device has a dual set up, where conditions simulate physiological pressure differences on one side, and compare it to a test condition on the other to explore different hypotheses regarding the mechanisms and possible treatments of Glaucoma.

Physiological conditions are simulated by maintaining a saline solution, heating it to body temperature, and replicating pressure differences normally found in the eye. Culture media is pumped into the eye to at about two to three microliters per minute to simulate normal fluid production. If the media is delivered steadily, the eyes tested can be kept alive for two to three weeks. Interestingly, the technology for this process has come a long way in the past few years.

Previously, this process was completed by a pressure transducer system that held the pressure steady with a pump; however, this device encountered difficulty in keeping the pressure constant. With the use of the newly improved device, Dr. Ethier’s lab has made significant advancements in glaucoma research and may be on the crux of solving this clinical problem.

The reason pressure is so key is that retinal ganglean cells are very sensitive to pressure and these cells are responsible for forming the optic nerve (the cable connecting the eyes to the brain). It is easy to imagine how damage to this area leads to a poor prognosis for vision. The sclera, also known as the “white of the eye”, is the fibrous,

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protective outer layer of the eye. A new therapy for glaucoma involves modifying the mechanical properties of the sclera. Dr. Ethier’s lab uses a highly sensitive camera for digital image correlation (DIC), in which the eye is sprayed with a tracking dye, which makes acute alterations in the pressure and track deformations using an autocorrelation function with DIC. Using this tool, it has been found that the stiffness of certain regions may result in the protection of cells.

Another interesting device currently in use in the lab is the TonoLab, a handheld device that tracks deformation by pressing into the eye and measuring the velocity of the eye surface as it bounces back. The research team is also setting up an electroretinography (ERU) apparatus which measures electric activity in the eye. Since the retina is electrically active, this activity is measured using a flashing light, activating the retina, and the signal is detected from which characteristics of the eye can b inferred. Lastly, the lab uses a microCT machine which measures important structures, namely the lamina cribrosa in the back of the eye, based upon the principle that tissue deforms with applied pressure in the eye. It works by projecting pure, intense high energy x-rays from multiple angles and then constructing a 3D image with a three µm resolution.

It is amazing to see the pace of increasingly sophisticated technologies but their impact on everyday research often is taken for granted. Even in undergraduate labs, the fact that students are already using such complex technology as the centrifuges or the AFMs is impressive. With the pace of increasing technological prowess, students may soon be using some of the technologies mentioned earlier on a regular basis.

Image of ERG Test (Photos: Wikipedia)

2 BME ANSWERS PAGE TITLE

MAR ISSUE 5

TOOLBOX

BME ANSWERS

By ALPHA ETA MU BETA

The BME Honors Society

1. I have an Inventure Prize idea already - could a freshman participate and how do I form a team?

There is no class nor age restriction for entering the Inventure Prize competition. The interest form and more details about competition can be found by googling for Inventure Prize. I would search for other students who share a similar passion and interest for your idea and have complementary abilities and technical skills to round out your team. There will be information sessions for the Inventure Prize, so I would recommend attending these sessions to gather more information about competing.

Best of luck - make BME proud!

2. What should I do over the summer? Internships, classes, study abroad?

Your summer plans should be specific to your career goals. Once you have an idea of this goal such as getting into industry or pursuing academia at graduate school or medical school, I would reach out to upperclassmen who share similar career goals.

For industry, I would recommend applying for internships or getting ahead in your classes with the objective of obtaining an internship in the future. For graduate school, I would explore research opportunities both at Georgia Tech and at other schools as well such as through REUs. For medical school, there are also a variety of options including shadowing a practicing doctor, doing research, or volunteering in clinics at home or abroad. Whatever you choose, just be sure to make the most of it!

THAT’S SO BME...

By Diane Nguyen and Michelle Tourchak

TOOLBOX

By Dhara Patel

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department “I check the length using my ruler. Shoot! My widget height is 0.3 inches off from the 2 inches I wanted so I’m going to have to start over. It looks like it’s going to be a long night as I, yet again, redraw and recut the paper before I glue it all together. Why am I doing this pointless exercise again? I’m not going to be making paper boxes in industry.”

Looking back at 2300 (2310 as it is now known), I have come to realize that many of the things we accomplished in the class – our sketchpad homework, the widgets, the multitude of properly defined lines in Solidworks – were all meant to build two paramount skills: precision and accuracy. As engineers we all have to be able to work quickly, but also meticulously. With the nature of the projects that BME students work upon, the calculations, measurements, and designs all directly impact the target population which can be a fairly large group of people. Sometimes, it means having to go back and redesign; left imperfect, a part failure in, for instance, an invasive surgery device could spell disaster.

Another skill learned from 2310 – the ability to draw relatively straight lines freehand or working on 2-point perspective - might give students flashbacks to middle school art class. In practice though, drawing all the lines as accurately and the figures as similar as possible to the device to reproduce the device’s image in concept sketches. Accurately and precisely drawn concept sketches allow others to easily relate their idea to investors and peers so that they can understand how parts of the device assembly are supposed to fit together and function. `Most people who have taken 2300/2310 can clearly see how their redesign projects sharpen their design and analysis skills, especially as they pertain to research and development, but often fail to realize just how equally critical many of the skills the smaller assignments impart. These seemingly minor tasks are just as invaluable in any engineer’s toolbox of skills; while they may not show how a CPR mask functions or the proper way to assemble an artificial hip joint, these smaller assignments help develop a fundamental sense of precision and accuracy that is critical for the keen engineer when designing a new medical device.

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MAR ISSUE 5

INDUSTRY

FROM PROJECT TO START UP O

By Yinglin Li Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

ne distinguishing feature of Tech’s BME program is Senior Design (also known as Capstone), in which students are faced with the challenge of designing a product that can meet industrial standards and satisfy a commercial need. Following the course, some groups transform their project from a dream and into a burgeoning startup company. One such startup that rose from a Senior Design project is Monitor Med Solutions, co-founded by formed BME students Bailey Ernstes, Jacob Kazlow, and Carrie Simpson. Monitor Med Solutions provides both patients suffering from increased cranial pressure and their families a mobile method to monitor shunt performance at home by integrating pressure sensors into the patient’s shunt system which are linked to a phone app for easy access.

is still imperfect. Within the first year, 40% of shunts fail with failure being undetectable by the naked eye. Patients, who are mostly children, experience symptoms of nausea and headaches which can also occur while the shunt is intact, resulting in a large amount of unnecessary hospital visits and CT scans. Since her team placed an emphasis on identifying the problem first, the team contacted the National Hydrocephalus Foundation and the Hydrocephalus Association and asked them to share a survey they had made. The team subsequently received over five hundred responses including many heartbreaking stories of families’ experiences with the condition and, of these patients, 175 agreed for update-emails to be sent to them as the project progressed. One patient Ernstes recounted from the stories her team had gathered was about a 13-year old who had had 90 brain surgeries; while this is an extreme case, it was still not uncommon for children to undergo more than one brain surgery a year. After hearing these stories and realizing the difficulties hydrocephalus patients bear, the team decided to commercialize their product, which they hoped would provide a more economical and convenient way to test for shunt failures.

When the founders of Monitor Med Solutions first embarked on Capstone, they all planned to go into medicine and not one thought they would one day commercialize their product. Their project revolved around helping hydrocephalus patients who suffer from a swelling of ventricles in the brain due to a buildup of fluid in cavities within the brain. The manifest danger is in how the swelling could impact mental development in children and cause seizures, and, if left untreated, death. The current treatment is to use a cerebral shunt and catheter system to pipe out the extra cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the brain to the abdomen where it is reabsorbed into the body.

After identifying the issues with the current treatment system, the team worked on developing a solution. While they developed multiple methods for shunt testing, the Senior Design class, led by Professor Rains, imparted valuable lessons about the many facets of creating a product from compliance with FDA regulations to applying for patents.

When I interviewed Ms. Ernstes, she informed me that this treatment

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INDUSTRY

Stock photos of Whitaker. (Photos: David Van)

CEO Bailey Ernstes giving her presentation at the Neurolaunch Business Rotation in San Francisco.(Photo: MonitorMed Solutions)

After attending the Senior Design Expo, the team also competed in the Ian’s Friends Foundation Competition in April, 2015 and was awarded $5000. The team was then accepted by Neuro Launch, an accelerator program for startup companies in the field of neurology, in June this year as a startup company. From there, the team embarked upon a 3-month curriculum of lectures and advisement from professionals in the field including hospital administrators, lawyers, and neurosurgeons. Ernstes described the process as being very helpful in helping detail the general outline of a startup company that the Senior Design class teaches. Neuro Launch also helped the new startup by providing a legal assistance for the new company and funding - one of the main challenges Monitor Med Solutions faces today - in the form of an investment. Due to hydrocephalus being a relatively rare disorder with only about 20,000 – 200,000 cases in the United States per year (compared to a disease such as melanoma), there are less investors and funds going towards development of treatments for the disease.

In the end, Monitor Med Solutions is a fledgling startup company with the potential to better the lives of children suffering from hydrocephalus nationwide. The company is a shining product of a unique aspect of our BME program, the Senior Design course, where talented and driven students can come together and use the knowledge accumulated over their college careers to create something amazing and applicable in the medical world.

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ABROAD

ABROAD

BME: FROM ATLANTA TO ADDIS ABABA

By Andrew McNair

D

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

r. Manu Platt, a professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, recently travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to conduct breast cancer research. In Ethiopia, breast cancer is very prevalent among young women in their 20s, and is characterized by very aggressive tumors which make treatment difficult. Alongside two of his graduate students, Dr. Platt visited Ethiopia in hopes of testing tissue samples and teaching Ethiopian graduate students how to use an assay developed by Dr. Platt during his first year as a professor at Georgia Tech.

Dr. Platt’s research focuses on proteases, which play an important role in tumor metastasis. Proteases are enzymes secreted by cancer cells which help break down the matrix around a primary tumor. Breaking down this matrix allows the cancer cells to migrate and possibly form secondary tumors elsewhere in the body. Dr. Platt and his team hoped to use a cheap and rapid assay to look for changes in protease activity between matched normal and tumor tissue samples. The goal of this research was to determine whether the tumors observed were either more aggressive than those observed in other countries or if the tumors were beginning to form earlier.

The assay Dr. Platt previously developed for use in HIV research was already low-cost and could be run with just a few reagents. However, after encountering some new challenges while conducting research in Ethiopia, Dr. Platt and his students identified ways to make the assay just as effective with fewer starting materials. Making this assay cheaper, faster, and more automated has the potential to give this research valuable clinical applications in low resource areas.

As Dr. Platt reflected on his journey to Ethiopia, he emphasized the importance of biomedical engineers who think outside of the box and create new technologies to circumvent old problems. He also noted the difference between developing technologies for low-resource settings in theory and using these technologies in practice. In order to make an impact, as Dr. Platt noted, the technology must function properly and add value in the environment for which it was designed; otherwise, the technology simply does not reach the people for whom it was designed help.

This page: Dr. Platt and his research team.

Opposit page: Dr. Platt working working with his grad students.

(Photos: Submitted)

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MAR ISSUE 5

PRE-HEALTH

MAR ISSUE 5

RESEARCH

PRE-HEALTH

By Nadiya Zafar

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

W

ith the advent of the fall semester, deadlines for medical school applications are quickly approaching. Nearly every soon-to-begraduate pre-med student has been frantically doting upon the bevy of qualifications needed to prove to admissions committees that they are worth the investment of an education. While the coming months may prove stressful and trying, it is no doubt encouraging knowing that other students who have previously faced the same struggles managed to rise to the occasion and are now well on their way to being able to someday say, “I practice medicine.” One such former student is William Sessions, a former Chief of Operations for the Pioneer and a ’13 graduate of the BME program, who is currently enrolled at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University.

When William first came to Tech, his decision to join the biomedical engineering program was influenced by his father being a mechanical engineer by trade and also by the positive influence that doctors and practitioners had upon him throughout his life. According to him, completion of the program imparted upon him a problem-solving mindset that was highly applicable to solving issues in clinical settings and also sharpened his critical thinking skills. However, the substance of the coursework at medical school did catch him by surprise. When he first started attending classes, he expected quite a bit of integration of mathematical tools and engineering concepts, saying that “BME is a lot of problem solving, a lot of learning concepts, and then applying them.

Medical school on the other hand, it’s a lot of memorization of facts that you just need to know.” William admitted that he did find it a little odd at first not being able to apply his strength in mathematics and engineering and expected it to actually be easier. On the contrary, he ended up having to go through the material many times over to be able to absorb everything. To further accentuate the difference, William recalled the following: “The first week of class, everyone showed up to class with a spiral notebook. By the third week, everyone had brought tablets and laptops to type on because of the sheer amount of information. What might have worked in undergrad just doesn’t work here.”

of work presented at medical school. To any aspiring medical school students, he offers the following advice: “Be wise with your time management and your study schedule. Make sure to read before class and take notes on the power-points themselves. What really helped me out was shifting my study time to before and after class – it was a huge adjustment but it made a big difference.”

DR. LENA TING

In the end, while William appreciates how Tech prepared him for the busy life at medical school, he does wish that he had done a few things differently in his undergraduate career – namely, appreciating the free time that the undergraduate experience had to offer. “We are all doing what we love”, he says “and I was enjoying what I was doing but in the end it was just another step that I took to get somewhere else.” Regardless, he is still glad he was able to experience so many things while at Tech such as storming the field after the homecoming game against Clemson in 2012. Even with his busy schedule at medical school, he still finds time to do other things: “I live next to a golf course and there’s always Ultimate Frisbee on Saturdays. I also enjoy reading fiction or interesting nonfiction and, of course, there’s Tech football!”

Undergraduate Student in the Coulter Department

At the end of the day, while medical school is challenging, William still relishes how rewarding the experience has been and undoubtedly will be. For all those close to embarking on the next chapter of their journey towards a career in medicine, William’s experience should no doubt serve as motivation and a reminder for how the hard work put in now will someday pay off.

William at his white coat ceremony with his parents. (Photo: Submitted)

In spite of the differences in course material, William does credit his undergraduate education quite a bit in helping him to succeed at medical school. Topics such as physiology and cell biology which he underestimated in his undergraduate career turned out to be a major boon for him in absorbing the more in-depth physiology knowledge. He also credits the workload at Tech to helping him adjust to the volume

By Akanksha Bhatia

I

n the ninth grade, an article for an in-class assignment about neuron stimulation and its impact on walking piqued the interest of Lena Ting. As such, she initially fostered an interest in physics and neurobiology and wanted to become an astronaut.

She went on to pursue her bachelor’s in mechanical engineering at Berkeley and discovered an interest in robotics and human motion analysis. As an undergraduate, she worked in a lab that analyzed insects like cockroaches and designed robots with insect like features. From this work, she sought to extrapolate this knowledge to understanding motor movements in human beings.

Now, Dr. Ting, a faculty and research member of the Coulter department, and her laboratory explore how the brain controls muscle movement. Via a combination understanding of neurobiology and biomechanics, her lab explores whole body movement in both healthy individuals and those with motor impairments. Their objective is to improve the way motor impairments are analyzed. Dr. Ting believes current methods focus more on whether an individual can walk as opposed to how an individual can walk. Therefore, means to discovering better ways to perform rehabilitation on individuals with motor impairments such as spinal cord injuries are glossed over and make the rehabilitation learning curve shorter for these individuals.

Her lab’s recent move to Emory University was precipitated by having greater accessibility to patients at the rehabilitation center at Emory hospital and to fellow collaborators in the field.

Currently, Dr. Ting is working with a lab investigating Parkinson’s disease and its effect on balance mechanisms through an adapted version of the South American dance, the Tango. The lab’s spin on the Argentinian tango is targeted to help people with Parkinson’s refine their dual tasking (walking and talking).

The importance of gait analysis and, specifically, measuring how one can better analyze gait goes beyond helping those with motor

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deficiencies or diseases and into treatment of clinical depression. Researchers have noticed that individuals with clinical depression tend to walk slowly and with a stoop. Thus, Dr. Ting believes it would be essential to the progress of research and understanding of clinical depression to understand how parameters of gait can be measured and attributed to this disease.

Dr. Ting’s laboratory analyzes both muscle activity and biomechanics to understand how muscle reactivity results in motor movement using tools such as moving platforms to analyze how people fall. The data collected is then analyzed using robust algorithms. Computer models of the musculoskeletal system are also used to this end and musculo-skeleteal simulation analysis is also conducted as well.

Dr. Ting also has another interesting line of research in her laboratory involving the analysis of human-robot interactions with assistive devices and analyzing human-human interactions. This data is being collected in the hope of trying to create exoskeletons that function fluidly with the user.

Ten years from now, Dr. Ting sees her research becoming more application oriented. She also intends to conduct more sophisticated analysis and simulation to understand the function of the sensory system and variation in individuals’ gait. Eventually, she intends to move from motor analysis and towards psychiatrics and work towards performing virtual rehabilitation and help further the field of personalized medicine.

Dr. Ting does research on how to improve the way motor impairment is anaylzed. (Photo: Submitted)

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