Movement Recovery Lab Hosts Its Largest Group of Summer Research Students

This summer, the Weinberg Family Cerebral Palsy Center (WFCPC)'s Movement Recovery Lab is hosting nine student researchers—the most it has welcomed in a single year. The students come from a range of institutions, including the State University of New York, Washington University in St. Louis, Cornell University, Columbia College, and the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Each student is paired with a mentor from the WFCPC’s research or clinical team, contributing to projects in both preclinical and clinical areas of research in motor function and recovery.

Thomas Hunt, a rising second-year medical student at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, is one of the students working in the lab this summer. He is assisting with the development and automation of SensiTrak, a tool that measures proprioceptive function in healthy and injured rodent models. His project focuses on refining SensiTrak into a lab-ready tool that can be used in preclinical behavioral studies.

“Preclinical research plays a critical role in advancing our clinical understanding,” said Hunt. “I'm grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this work and help bridge the gap between basic science and patient care.”

Also among this year’s cohort is Heera Santhosh, a second-year undergraduate student at Columbia College majoring in Neuroscience. She is working on developing a low-cost, markerless motion capture system to help track motor recovery in individuals with cervical spinal cord injury. The system will be incorporated into a pilot clinical trial of spinal cord stimulation.

Santhosh is mentored by Evan Joiner, MD, PhD, a Columbia Neurosurgery Enfolded Spine Fellow who is currently completing an NIH funded research fellowship in the Movement Recovery Lab. Dr. Joiner’s research focuses on the use of neuromodulation for movement recovery after spinal cord injury, and he has been recognized for his innovative work in the field.

The Movement Recovery Lab is proud to support these students and their contributions to ongoing research. Their efforts reflect a shared commitment to understanding and improving recovery after neurological injury.