The Locomotor Training and Recovery Research Program (LTRRP)

The mission of the Locomotor Training and Recovery Research Program (LTRRP) is to maximize the recovery of locomotion in individuals with central nervous system injury or disease, targeting stroke and spinal cord injury, and to enhance their quality of life. Dr. Andrea Behrman and Dr. Steve Kautz provide the leadership for the locomotor research initiative combining expertise in adult neurorehabilitation, motor control, biomechanics, and engineering. Our aim, through research, is to apply an understanding of the neurobiological control of walking and experience-dependent plasticity to develop and test therapeutic training interventions that promote the recovery of walking for home and community ambulation. To that end, we pursue questions that will ultimately provide clinicians with the knowledge and tools to provide the “best practice” for the recovery of walking. Furthermore, we are interested in understanding the mechanisms that impair locomotion after CNS insult relative to the requirements for locomotion. Two ongoing studies will investigate recovery of walking in adults and children with spinal cord injury (SCI). We are also developing new tools for measurement that begin in the research lab, but that will be translated into clinical practice. Advances in technology and our biomechanical understanding of movement have enhanced our capacity to analyze movement, posture, balance, and walking and to understand fundamental principles related to motor control deficits and their implications for locomotor recovery.

Locomotor Training Intervention Laboratory website

Muscle Disuse and Regeneration

The consequences of skeletal muscle atrophy are far reaching and include decrease of motor control and overall fitness, development of functional limitations and impairment, long term disability and an increased risk for developing of a number of chronic diseases. As such, the maintenance and recovery of muscle function and the subsequent improvements in functional abilities and overall health presents an important challenge to the field of Rehabilitation Science. Under the direction of Dr. Krista Vandenborne and Dr. Glenn Walter the Muscle Physiology Laboratory at the University of Florida employs a multidisciplinary, integrated research approach to studying muscle degeneration/regeneration from a pathophysiological level to that of functional impairment. Our research involves studies aimed at 1) developing novel, noninvasive techniques for the evaluation of skeletal muscle, 2) investigating the ability to enhance muscle function using modalities ranging from gene transfer to exercise training and pharmacological treatment (hormonal supplement), and 3) examining the physiological process(es) essential to the repair of skeletal muscle and return of functional ability. As such, projects in this laboratory include human and animal studies with clinical and basic science approaches to investigate neuromuscular adaptations to both increased and decreased use. Projects are funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Paralyzed Veterans of America.

Musculoskeletal Disorders

The mission of the Research Program in Musculoskeletal Disorders (RPMD) is to train individuals with clinical backgrounds to become effective rehabilitation researchers. Several faculty members have broad areas of expertise that are centered by their common interest in effective management of musculoskeletal disorders. Their primary goal is to directly influence clinical practice through their research findings. The RPMD emphasizes a collective and collaborative approach to rehabilitation research and focuses on two main emphasis areas: Pain Rehabilitation and Biomechanics and Movement Analysis. The primary faculty leading the RPMD are Drs. Mark Bishop, Terese Chmielewski and Steven George. The RPMD program is highly committed to translate and disseminate their findings to rehabilitation scientists and practitioners, and to successfully compete for extramural funding. The RPMD is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Florida Biomedical Research Program, a University of Florida Funding opportunity grant, and the Department of Defense. Dr. George is also the PI of the Department of Defense sponsored POLM trial, which is investigating the effect of education and exercise in preventing low back pain for soldiers.

Respiratory Neurophysiology and Neurobiology

Dr. David Fuller's research program is aimed at understanding how neuroplasticity in the brain and spinal cord influences the control of breathing. The overall hypothesis driving the work in Dr. Fuller’s laboratory is that appropriate induction of neuroplasticity has the potential to improve respiratory muscle control in cases of injury or disease, thereby reducing dependence on mechanical ventilators and improving the quality of life for certain patients. Dr. Fuller's laboratory uses behavioral, neurophysiological, immunohistochemical, biochemical, and molecular methods to explore the relationship between neural plasticity and breathing. Current projects focus on 1) mechanisms of spinal plasticity induced by rehabilitative training following cervical spinal cord injury; 2) mechanisms underlying spontaneous respiratory motor recovery following cervical spinal cord injury, and 3) using gene delivery to respiratory motoneurons as a tool for improving breathing in certain disease states

The laboratory is currently funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, and the American Paraplegia Society.