News
Recent News
December 2024: Team travels to Nashville, TN
A team from UMN traveled to Nashville, TN for the Parkinson Study Group Annual Meeting. We specifically went for the SPARX3 Clinical Trial annual meeting which is held at this conference each year. SPARX3 is an exercise study looking at how much exercise is required to slow down the progression of PD, when people start exercising prior to beginning PD medications
November 2024: Somuayira receives an award for the UROP
Somuayira Nsude, an undergraduate student in the lab has received an award for the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Congratulations, Somuayira!! Her project will look at the relationship between gait impairment and cognitive impairment in people with Parkinson's disease.
Sept 2024: Emily takes the lead in publishing a new paper
Our team, led by our PhD student Emily Lecy, published a new paper examining how computer models of deep brain stimulation can activate different pathways through the brain and change measures of rigidity (stiffness or resistance to passive movement) in the arm. Congratulations, Emily!!
Here's the link: https://journals-physiology-org.ezp2.lib.umn.edu/doi/full/10.1152/jn.00155.2024
If you would like to read this paper, and cannot get past the paywall, please reach out! We can send it to friends, but posting a pdf of it is trickier.
Sept 2024: Sommer receives an R01 Grant
Sommer received her first R01 grant. Congratulations, Sommer!! This grant contains a set of experiments that will investigate how neural activity is related to freezing of gait in people with Parkinson's disease. For these experiments, we will test gait activities in people with PD, with and without freezing of gait, and controls (people without PD of similar age and sex). We will look at activity in the motor cortex, vestibular (balance) system, and the basal ganglia. If you're interested in learning more or participating, please reach out to our coordinators!!
August 2024: Callen receives a fellowship
A third year graduate student in our lab, Callen Maupin, recently received an NIH F31 predoctoral fellowship! His dissertation project is titled "Neural Mechanisms of Impaired Postural Control in People with Parkinson's Disease". Congratulations Callen!
May 2023: What we are up to: new online articles to read
Colum recently gave a talk for the Parkinson's Foundation that was turned into a great online article, give it a read!
April 2023: Callen receives MnDRIVE graduate fellowship
Callen was recently awarded a MnDRIVE graduate student fellowship in neuromodulation. His project will focus on understanding the responses of trunk muscles in those with Parkinson's disease by using transcranial magnetic and electrical vestibular stimulation. Go Callen!!
April 2020: Social Distancing with MDL
Most years the Movement Disorders Lab celebrates the end of the semester with pizza and fun presentations. This year, we had to be creative in the face of COVID-19 and hosted our first Virtual MDL Party! Everyone shared a short presentation about their work this past year and we also shared happy news, pet photos, and more. We hope everyone is staying safe and well, we're all in this together!
November 2019: MDL at the Bell Museum
The Movement Disorders Lab packed up their lab equipment and presented about non-invasive brain stimulation to visitors at the Bell Museum this month. Visitors were able to see TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) in action and learn how we answer some important questions about the motor system. It was fantastic to see kids and adults alike learn something new about the brain!
July 2019: Summer Lab Outing
The Movement Disorders Lab took an evening boat ride on the Mississippi to celebrate the summer and spend time together outside of the office. It was especially fun to meet everyone's family members, including some of the newest additions!
May 2019: Happy Spring from xMDL!
The Movement Disorders Lab celebrated the end of the semester with pizza, data, and a new photo. Congratulations to our graduating seniors, Emily and Devin, as well as postdoc Rebekah, who walked at her PhD graduation ceremony this month.
March 2019: Jae receives MnDRIVE postdoctoral fellowship
Jae Woo Chung was recently awarded a MnDRIVE postdoctoral fellowship in neuromodulation. His project will focus on testing cortical-brainstem motor pathway function in Parkinson's disease using non-invasive brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
January 2019: Rebekah joins the lab
Rebekah Summers joined our research lab in January in order to complete her postdoctoral research. Her project focuses on studying neuroplasticity in people with REM sleep behavior disorder using neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation.
June 2018: Matt goes to Stanford
Bon Voyage to Matt Petrucci! After a 2-year postdoc in our lab, he and his wife are moving to San Francisco. Samantha will be doing her residency and Matt will be doing a postdoc in the lab of Helen Bronte-Stewart. Best Wishes, Matt!