Robynne G. Braun, Md, Phd

Biography

I am a physician/scientist with a research background in Kinesiology and clinical training in Rehabilitation Medicine. Since completing my Ph.D. in 2007, I have been building a career path that unites my research background in kinesiology with my clinical interests in musculoskeletal and neurological disorders. While in the M.D. with Honors in Research program at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine (2007 – 2011), I collaborated with the Kartje Lab at the Neuroscience Institute where I developed kinematic methods to evaluate motor recovery with stem cell therapy in a rodent model of stroke. I presented this research at several conferences both nationally (AAPM&R, ACRM) and internationally (ISPRM). During the final year of medical school and first year of residency as Intern in Internal Medicine at Loyola, I published several manuscripts (in Brain and Cognition, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, and Somatosensory and Motor Research), and was awarded the 2010 ERF New Investigator Award by the Foundation for PM&R. During my subsequent residency training at the University of Washington, I continued to develop my research skills and was accepted in 2013 to the RMSTP, an NIH-funded career development program for emerging clinician/scientists in rehabilitation medicine. While in this program, I collaborated with the Childers and Mack labs at the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine and initiated a new line of research examining the effects exercise on gene therapy uptake for inherited myopathies. After residency, I was accepted for advanced training at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the Science of Clinical Investigation Program, where I further refined my knowledge of clinical research design and implementation. This positioned me well for my subsequent appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Maryland, where my work is focused upon clinical care and research in stroke rehabilitation.

Research Interest

Stroke, rehabilitation, upper extremity, motor control, kinematics