Tag Archives: clinical

Biomechanics to improve running performance
Gemma Malagón
2019, senior
Biomedical engineering
Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico

My Research Project

As a Fellow from the American Physiological Society (APS), Hearst Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship, I was grateful to have had an opportunity to work under Dr. Arellano at the University of Houston at the Center for Neuromotor and Biomechanics Research.

My research this summer focused on the biomechanics of arm swing across different walking speeds and its effect on the metabolic cost. Our main objective was to better understand the passive and active contributions by examining the electromyographic (EMG) activity of the muscles involved in arm swing, with a special focus on understanding how changes in EMG amplitude in the upper limb varied across walking speed.

The data acquisition consisted of:

  1. Measurements of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production using indirect calorimetry, which is a process that measured the amount of heat that was released or absorbed during a chemical reaction;
  2. XYZ coordinates of joint positions, which has the objective to understand the kinematics of the body;
  3. Ground reaction forces; and
  4. Muscle activity of arm muscles of interest.

These measurements allowed us to compute and compare metabolic power, joint angles and mechanics and average muscle activity patterns when walking with and without arm swing.

Realities of Research

The research that I conducted was exciting and it was a wonderful experience working in the lab. In the beginning, I spent most of my time reading articles and doing research on my assigned project. I had an engineering background prior to my summer research, so one of the aims of my research project was to develop an efficient MATLAB code to process and analyze the EMG data collected on the studies.

I have learned to measure my progress due to the number of setbacks I had, which also helped me realize different paths which brought me closer to reaching my goal. I have learned more than I could ever hope and was fortunate to have had the opportunity to work—even for a little while—with some of the most talented and coolest people in the U.S.

Life as a Scientist

I made the decision to study biomedical engineering with a concentration in research driven by my desire to contribute to fundamental breakthroughs in medicine and become a better Mexican-researcher. This past summer, besides working on my own research, I’ve was involved in many lab projects, so I realized how amazing it is when you work with people who share the same passion as you. The truth is, having to work eight hours a day during the week, and some days even more, might be tiring! This was especially true when I would have to take the bus for two hours to get to the lab and two more hours to get back home. However, it was a unique experience that not everyone is willing to take advantage of. Participating in this program not only widened my research experience, but it has helped me on my path towards a master’s degree, which I plan to pursue after I graduate.

Reference:

Christopher J. Arellano, Rodger Kram. Journal of Experimental Biology 2014 217: 2456-2461; doi: 10.1242/jeb.100420

Gemma Malagón is a senior majoring in biomedical engineering at the University of Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. She is a Hearst Undergraduate Summer Research Fellow working in Dr. Arellano’s lab at the University of Houston, Health and Human Performance Department. Gemma’s fellowship is funded by the American Physiological Society and Hearst Foundations. After graduation, Gemma plans to pursue a master’s degree in clinical and sports engineering.

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Hearst Foundations and the American Physiological Society (APS) for my research fellowship, and to Dr. Christopher J. Arellano, which the completion of my internship would not have been possible without his support and mentorship.

Hypertension Prevention: does it also improve motor cognitive function?

Research Project

This summer, I’m studying the effects of inspiratory muscle strength training on motor and cognitive function in middle-aged to older adults. Motor function is the ability to move the muscles in your body, and cognitive function is your brain’s ability to perform tasks. Inspiratory muscle strength training, or IMST, is a relatively understudied technique of exercising the muscles you use to breathe in. By breathing in, or inspiring, against a resistance with a small device that looks similar to an inhaler, you can make these muscles stronger and hopefully improve many bodily and cellular functions, including motor-cognitive function. What is currently known about IMST is that it can significantly improve blood pressure in healthy adults (DeLucia, De Asis and Bailey, 2018), but its effects on adults with high blood pressure have not been tested yet. The IMST study on the large scale is focusing on the possible blood pressure and cardiovascular benefits of IMST in adults with high blood pressure, and I’m focusing my research and data analysis specifically on the motor cognitive functions that we also test.

Because a decline in motor-cognitive (shortened to motor-cog) function is highly correlated to mortality (death) risk, there is a large scientific effort to evaluate the effectiveness of various forms of intervention to improve these variables. Motor-cognitive decline is characterized by dementia and immobility, which are not only independent predictors of mortality risk, but large influential factors on perceived quality of life for older adults. It is well established that a consistent aerobic exercise routine will effectively prevent motor-cognitive decline in older adults, but because of its heavy burden, it is not frequently adhered to. Finding other effective practices of improving motor and cognitive function that are more adherable will greatly improve the quality of life for aging individuals and lower their mortality risk.

Realities of Research

Figure 1: Formaldehyde used for preserving endothelial cells

So far, I have found that doing clinical research in a lab is full of excitement and surprises! Beginning at the start of the fellowship, clinical interactions and the IMST study became only two of my many responsibilities. I have been trained on wet lab procedures such as cell collection and isolation, as well as blood processing to assess certain chemicals in the blood. These tasks can be tedious, and are very time and method sensitive. I can spend two hours doing the cell collection and isolation for them to later not give any helpful results when I analyze them. Experiencing frustrating aspects like this is helping me develop the very important skill of patience. I have to use patience in many aspects of my work; wet lab mishaps are not the only issues one can encounter during a typical day of research. I am working in one of the most dynamic physiology labs in the country, with some of the brightest in the field, but despite this we all run into our fair share of hiccups. For example, our huge datasheet for our study got deleted and we spent several days trying to find it. Also, our freezer logging software crashed and left us without decades of logged biological sample information!

Figure 2: Freezing plasma in liquid nitrogen for later analysis

 

 

On the other side of my work, I have to use patience with the clinical subjects. When working with more stubborn older subjects, I find it’s essential to remain patient to maintain professionalism, and to represent our lab in the most positive way possible. I’ve had difficult interpersonal interactions with some of the subjects, but remaining patient and working through issues and questions with them upholds the highest standards of human research we have as an institution. Anyways, our IMST study has (despite some problems) been very on-track and is moving along at a quick pace. We just received more funding from the NIH through a grant that will support us through the next two years of research. Woohoo!

Life of a Scientist

Living as a scientist this summer has been a truly rewarding and educational experience. Going from a very part-time volunteer in the lab doing data entry, to a full-time member of the lab team with much more responsibilities has been an eye-opening transition. I am a much more integral part of the team, and I have to be much more accountable than I was before. I went from only having one task to focus on at a time, to having three-four or more, including clinical visits, grant reviewing, abstract writing, journal club presentations, and reading physiology literature. Balancing and prioritizing my lab tasks is difficult and stressful, and has shown me the less-glamorous side of basic research that you don’t realize until you experience it for yourself. On the other hand, I have been supported in so many ways I never expected, and I love working in a team-based environment. As a non-traditional community college student, I always felt like an outsider and thought I would never be fully accepted into the scientific/academic world. I was proven wrong. Our lab has endless support and an open-door policy when it comes to questions and concerns, which encourages communication. Every member of my lab team has been so helpful in educating me in physiology and research topics I’m unfamiliar with, and has given me all the opportunities I could ask for to be successful at this early stage of my research career. In fact, I should have at least two publications by the end of next year, and probably three by the time I finish my undergraduate studies. This amazing experience has strongly encouraged me to further pursue my career in physiological research.

 

Sources:

DeLucia, C., De Asis, R. and Bailey, E. (2018). Daily inspiratory muscle training lowers blood pressure and vascular resistance in healthy men and women. Experimental Physiology, 103(2), pp.201-211.

Makinzie Hamilton is an undergraduate junior studying Integrative Physiology and Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is working at UCB under Dr. Douglas Seals at the Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory, which focuses on improving cardiovascular aging. She is funded through grants from the STRIDE fellowship from the APS and The National Heart and Lung Association (Grant #1 R25 HL115473-01). After graduating in 2020, she hopes to pursue a dual MD/PhD degree and do clinical research regarding infectious disease and tropical medicine. In her free time, she enjoys studying true crime, cooking, painting, and fishing.