News
Rhodora has been awarded a 2-year Predoctoral Fellowship from PhRMA Foundation!
Rhodora Therese Gumabao Torres is a 2nd year PhD student in our lab and has received the highly prestigious and competitive PhRMA Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship for her project "Real-World Assessment of Gait and Sleep for Early Identification of Pain Flares in People With Knee Osteoarthritis ". Congratulations Rhodora!
Read the official announcement from PhRMA Foundation here.
New publication in Arthritis Care and Research
Building on our prior work on gait features that are related to symptomatic worsening of knee osteoarthritis, in this new study, we examine the associations of gait features with the risk of structural worsening, i.e., cartilage damage, over 2-years.
We applied ensemble machine learning to wearable sensor derived-gait measures and other demographic and clinical data from participants in the Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (n=1,703). We observed that longer step length, a modifiable gait feature, is associated with worsening cartilage damage over two years in individuals with, or at risk for, knee OA, particularly in those with more baseline cartilage damage.
Interventions to reduce step length could be considered to reduce risk of cartilage damage worsening. However, whether step length can be modified to an extent sufficient to reduce this risk needs further study.
First author: Kathy Bacon
Read full-text here.
We were at the Harvard OASIS symposium
Our lab was well represented at the Harvard Aging Initiative Osteoarthritis Surgical Innovation and Science (OASIS) Symposium on February 28. OASIS aimed to galvanize discussion, research, and innovation toward osteoarthritis, cartilage degeneration, and associated diseases. Our students presented posters on their work. Speakers included:
- Osteoarthritis Pathology, Imaging and Clinical Treatment: Dr. Brian Snyder (Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Sports Medicine Orthopedic Surgeon at Boston Children’s Hospital).
- The Future of Clinical Innovation in Osteoarthritis: Dr. Ali Guermazi (Professor of Radiology and Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine). Dr. Christian Latermann (Department Chief of Sports Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School)
- The Genetics and Epigenetics of Osteoarthritis: Dr. Michelle Yau (Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Assistant Scientist at Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research)
- Tissue Engineering in Osteoarthritis: Dr. Sarah Jachim (Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Craft Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital)
- Drug Development in Osteoarthritis: Dr. Ronnen Rubenoff (Former VP, Global Head, Translational Medicine Discovery and Profiling at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research). Greg Erman, MBA (CEO of Longevity Biotech NewCo. Previous CEO of EmpiraMed)
Yiwen Yang is accepted into the Neurophotonics Research Training Program
Yiwen Yang is a 1st year DPT-PhD student and has been accepted into the Boston University Neurophotonics Research Trainee Program (NTP)! Congratulations Yiwen!
Welcome Dr. Long!
Dr. Ting Long has joined us as a postdoctoral researcher! Dr. Long completed their PhD in Biomedical Engineering from University of Auckland. Welcome Dr. Long!
Prof. Justin Fernandez visited our lab
Prof. Justin Fernandez from University of Auckland visited with us and shared his research on wearable sensors for enhancing rehabilitation after orthopaedic surgeries.
Welcome Doug Mitchell!
Doug joins us as our new lab manager! He completed his undergraduate training clinical physiology from Central Washington University and Master of Science in Exercise Physiology from San Diego State University. Welcome Doug!
Dr. Margarita Alegria visited our lab
Dr. Margarita Alegria from Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School spoke to the PhD students the importance of diversity in academic medicine. It was wonderful to host her and finally meet her in person after collaborating for a few years!
New publication in Clinical Biomechanics
In our most recent study in Clinical Biomechanics , we examined the associations between muscle activation and pain during a step-up movement in people with knee OA.
We report that larger quadriceps activation during the movement was related to lower pain during the same movement. We also report that larger activation was related to better overall physical function.
First Author: Ehyun Kim, MS
Read more here (free access to full article until Dec 15 2025): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268003325002566?dgcid=author
Dr. Brad Manor visited our lab
It was a pleasure to briefly host Dr. Brad Manor from Marcus Institute of Aging Research and Harvard Medical School in the lab!
Dr. Manor spoke at the Rehabilitation Science Seminar and shared his fascinating work with non-invasive brain stimulation to improve balance and mobility in aging.
