The purpose of our research program is to develop, evaluate and implement novel and effective methods to enhance community participation, quality of life and access to high-quality services and devices for persons with various types of disabilities, particularly those that use prostheses and orthoses. This is accomplished through science and engineering applications that are creative, rigorously evaluated and clinically relevant in order to improve the functional capabilities and community outcomes of people with disabilities.

Our work is conducted at the Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center (NUPOC) for Education & Research is within the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. Email Steven Gard, PhD, or visit the NUPOC website for more information.

The goal of our research is to improve effectiveness of prosthetic and orthotic interventions for people with disability and empower the clinicians who serve them with clinical relevant research.

Most of our work is conducted in the Jesse Brown VA Motion Analysis Research Laboratory and the Prosthetic and Orthotic Technology Assessment Lab, both of which are part of the Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center.

Our team has successfully developed and implemented a new sub-ischial prosthetic socket technique for persons with transfemoral amputation. This socket technique continues to be the focus of research and education efforts.

Stefania Fatone, PhD, currently a co-editor-in-chief of Prosthetics and Orthotics International and a sought-after presenter nationally and internationally. Email her at s-fatone@northwestern.edu for more information.

As a PM&R-physician and scientist with sub-specialty certifications in neuromuscular and electrodiagnostic medicine, the focus of Franz’s clinical and research agendas are highly integrated. He studies as well as takes care of patients with traumatic neurological injuries, neuropathy, diaphragm muscle weakness and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Visit the Franz lab website.

Matthew J. Major, PhD, studies the application of engineering-based principles to improve the quality of evidence-based clinical practice for rehabilitation of persons with neuromuscular or musculoskeletal insult, and to develop user-centered, optimized assistive device technology to enhance function and quality of life of these patient groups. He is particularly interested in designing interventions to enhance locomotor stability.

His lab uses a combination of bench test equipment to characterize the mechanical function of assistive devices, motion capture technology to assess human performance and fabrication equipment to build device prototypes for evaluation. The laboratory shares space with the Northwestern University Prosthetics-Orthotics Center (NUPOC) and is affiliated with the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. The lab has received funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation to support its rehabilitation engineering projects in prosthetics and orthotics.

Email Major or visit the NUPOC website for more information.

The research activities of our group focus on two major clinical areas: musculoskeletal pain and bone. In collaboration with Vania Apkarian, PhD, in the Department of Physiology, our pain research focuses on understanding the basis for pain chronification, utilizing brain imaging and psychophysical methodologies. 

Our current NIH-funded studies are evaluating the transition that occurs in individuals who progress from acute to chronic pain and attempting to modulate this by pharmacologic interventions. On a more applied level, the development and characterization of analgesic agents for the management of chronic musculoskeleletal pain has been a major focus for over the past decade.

We have helped design and implement phase 2 studies of many of the major classes of drugs currently in use, including NSAIDs, cox-2 selective inhibitors, opioids, topical analgesic agents and novel approaches to pain including antibodies to NGF (nerve growth factor) and other agents active on the peripheral nervous system.

Additionally, our group has initiated studies aimed at treating patients with acute spinal cord injury to attempt to maintain bone mass during their immediate post-injury period. In those individuals with SCI who have already lost significant bone mass, we have undertaken a second set of studies aimed at evaluating approaches to increase bone mass in these individuals, using physical and pharmacological interventions as well as attempting to assess the interaction between bone and the metabolic status of these individuals.

Visit Schnitzer's faculty profile or email him to learn more.