Relating the mechanical responses of the lumbar spine during sudden impacts to preceding mechanical exposures

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My research program aims to explore the mechanics of the lumbar spine during unanticipated impacts, perturbations, and acute loading events. Sub-failure mechanical exposures from unanticipated impacts, perturbations, and sudden loading events frequently occur, ranging from slips, trips, falls and stumbles during manual materials handling tasks to bumps and impacts when operating machinery or motor vehicles. To date, there is little understanding in how these subfailure mechanical exposures result in potential mechanical injury to the low back. The difficulty in establishing a mechanism for damage in these impact scenarios may be explained by altered mechanical joint properties stemming from preimpact exposure history, individual characteristics (e.g. advancing age, higher BMI), and postimpact mechanical changes in the lumbar spine, which can perpetuate to secondary injury pathways. My overall research program will evaluate these interacting effects surrounding acute loading and will provide a unique and multifaceted approach to identify fundamental links between loading exposures and biomechanical responses of spine tissues. The overall goal of my research program is to develop enhanced injury risk thresholds and guidelines based on the lumbar spine's capacity and injury risk during acute sudden impact exposures. To achieve this goal, three short-term research objectives will be addressed: 1) Assess how exposure history and age alters the demands on the low back in response to acute loading. 2) Explore how exposure to sudden loading alters movement strategies and link to future damage initiation and detection. 3) Evaluate the causes of injury initiation and progression in the structures of the spine at the tissue level in response to acute loading. Overall, this work will benefit multiple scientific domains by providing data on the demands on the low back in response to acute loading, combined with investigations at the tissue level to assess responses of spinal tissues and micro-damage initiation. Students who participate in this research program will gain valuable experience spanning applied human biomechanics research to the development of advanced mechanical tissue testing techniques, engaging in a flexible training environment to support both academic and industry track career paths. Emphasis will be placed on a strong fundamental knowledge base in injury mechanics and creative study design to target specific aspects of lumbar spine injury biomechanics. Motivated by a clear long-term objective, and a student focused training plan, centered around recruitment of a diverse team of HQP, this research program seeks to develop a new branch of lumbar spine biomechanics-investigating mechanical changes and damage in the lumbar spine in response to sub-failure impact loading events.