Center Investigators

	Researcher/Clinician Name	Title	Department	Specialties
	Andrea Aguirre, MD	Clinical Assistant Professor	Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	acute and chronic spinal cord injury rehabilitation, spasticity management, and adaptive sports and recreation
	Alison Barnard, DPT, PhD	Assistant Professor	Department of Physical Therapy	Pathophysiology in Muscular Dystrophy
	Elisabeth Barton, PhD	Professor & Acting Associate Dean	Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology	Muscular dystrophy and respiratory muscle function
	Richard Berry, MD	Professor & Medical Director	Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine	Sleep disorders, upper airway physiology, pharmacological treatment of sleep apnea, mechanisms of respiratory arousal
	Jennifer Bizon, PhD	Professor & Chair; Director	Department of Neuroscience; McKnight Brain Institute	Therapeutic intermittent hypoxia and cognitive function in rodent models
	Donald Bolser, PhD	Professor	Department of Physiological Sciences	Respiratory control, mechanisms of cough, and airway defense
	David Borchelt, PhD	Professor & Director	Department of Neuroscience	Prior transmission of ALS
	Prodip Bose, MD, PhD	Professor & Director	Department of Neurology	Spasticity after TBI/SCI
	Andrew Bryant, MD	Clinical Assistant Professor	Division of Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine	Pulmonary critical care and sleep medicine; hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension
	Barry Byrne, MD, PhD	Professor & Associate Chair	Department of Pediatrics	Pompe disease, gene therapy
	Thomas Clanton, PhD	BK and Betty Stevens Professor	Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology	Inflammation in respiratory muscles
	Erica Dale, PhD	Assistant Professor	Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics	Spinal stimulation induced phrenic motor plasticity; neurostimulation and functional recovery of breathing capacity after spinal injury
	Paul Davenport, PhD	Distinguished Professor	Department of Physiological Sciences	Respiratory control, sensation and airway defense
	Irene Estores, MD	Associate Professor	Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	Medical acupuncture; neuropathic pain
	Leonardo Ferreira, PhD	Associate Professor	Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology	Diaphragm atrophy
	Emily Fox, PT, DPT, PhD, NCS	Research Associate Professor	Department of Physical Therapy	Phrenic/diaphragm pacing as rehabilitative tool; therapeutic intermittent hypoxia and spinal injury
	David Fuller, PhD	Professor & Associate Director	Department of Physical Therapy	Spinal stimulation and recovery of breathing activity with opiate-induced respiratory depression and spinal injury; Regulation of airway muscles; hyperbaric oxygenation, intermittent hypoxia and respiratory plasticity, Pompe disease
	Elisa Gonzalez-Rothi, DPT, PhD	Research Assistant Professor	Department of Physical Therapy	Respiratory plasticity induced by neurostimulation and intermittent hypoxia; spinal cord injury; sleep apnea & pathogenic intermittent hypoxia after SCI
	Karen Hegland, PhD, CCC-SLP	Associate Professor & Program Director	Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences	Cough and respiratory sensation in Parkinson's Disease
	Russell Hepple, PhD	Professor	Department of Physical Therapy	Aging and toxicology of respiratory muscle
	Andrew Judge, PhD	Associate Professor	Department of Physical Therapy	Sepsis, cachexia and respiratory muscles
	Christopher Kaufmann, PhD, MHS	Assistant Professor	Department of Health Outcomes and Biomedical Informatics	sleep disorders and neurodegeneration
	Jorge Lascano, MD	Associate Professor	Division of Pulmonary Critical Care and Sleep Medicine	Pulmonary critical care
	Jada Lewis, PhD	Professor	Department of Neuroscience	Pathogenic and therapeutic IH in neurodegenerative disease
	Carolina Maciel, MD, MSCR	Associate Professor	Department of Neurology	Cognitive function after cardiac arrest/recovery; neurocritical care, TBI
	Shawn McGargill, MD	Clinical Assistant Professor	Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	Interventional spine care; orthopaedics and rehabilitation; physical medicine and rehabilitation
	Borna Mehrad, MD	Ethel Smith Research Professor and Chief	Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine	Lung disease
	Gordon Mitchell, PhD	Preeminence Professor & Director	Department of Physical Therapy	Intermittent hypoxia induced respiratory plasticity, therapeutic intermittent hypoxia in spinal injury and ALS
	Nicholas Napoli, PhD	Assistant Professor	Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering	Hyperbaric oxygenation
	Maria Nikodemova, MS, PhD	Research Associate Scientist	Department of Physical Therapy	microglial plasticity in healthy CNS and during neurodegeneration; APOE4 phenotype, sleep apnea; the role of microglia and neuroinflammation in regulating respiratory motor plasticity during hypoxia and after spinal cord injury
	Kevin Otto, PhD	Professor & Senior Associate Chair	Department of Biomedical Engineering	Neural interfaces, multi-channel implantable micro devices for neural stimulation, autonomic neuroengineering; neuroprosthetics; spinal/epidural stimulation
	Emily Plowman, PhD, CCC-SLP	Professor & Clinical Research Director	Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences	Dysphagia and cough in ALS
	Laura Ranum, PhD	Professor & Director	Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology	Genetics of neurodegenerative neuromuscular disease: myotonic dystrophy and ALS
	Michael Reid, PhD	Professor & Dean	Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology	Molecular biology of respiratory muscle
	Leah Reznikov, PhD	Associate Professor	Department of Physiological Sciences	Neural innervation of the airways, cystic fibrosis
	Christine Schmidt, PhD	Professor & Chair	Department of Biomedical Engineering	Neuroregeneration after peripheral or spinal cord injury
	Yasin B. Seven, MS, PhD	Assistant Professor	Department of Physiological Sciences	Neuroprotection in spinal cord injury and neurodegenerative diseases, nanoparticle-based targeted drug delivery
	Kimberly Sibille, PhD, MA	Associate Professor	Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation	Bridging the biomedical, behavioral, and psychosocial chasm in chronic pain
	Barbara Smith, PT, PhD	Research Assistant Professor	Department of Physical Therapy	Pompe disease, diaphragm pacing; therapeutic intermittent hypoxia in ALS patients
	Ashley Smuder, PhD	Assistant Professor	Department of Applied Physiology & Kinesiology	Diaphragm atrophy; response to therapeutics; HBO and diaphragm muscle inflammation in Pompe and SCI
	Ramon Sun, PhD	Associate Professor	Department of Biochemistry And Molecular Biology	Cellular metabolism, signaling, and physiology; disease etiology of neurological disorders
	Lee Sweeney, PhD	Professor	Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics	Molecular motors of the myosin superfamily; muscular dystrophy
	Krista Vandenborne, PT, PhD	Distinguished Professor & Chair	Department of Physical Therapy	Respiratory failure in human DMD
	Alicia Vose, PhD, CCC-SLP	Assistant Professor	Department of Neurology (UF Health -Jacksonville)	Acute intermittent hypoxia and respiratory strength training to enhance breathing and swallowing in people with chronic spinal cord injury; effects of diaphragm stimulation on respiratory neural drive and function
	Glenn Walter, PhD	Professor	Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics	MRI imaging of respiratory muscles & their plasticity
	Adam Woods, PhD	Associate Professor & Assistant Director	Department of Clinical and Health Psychology	Therapeutic intermittent hypoxia and cognitive function in aging humans
	James Wymer, MD, FAAN	Professor	Department of Neurology	Diagnosis and management of neuromuscular diseases, including ALS, muscle diseases and peripheral neuropathies