CAPh Lab Passes the Torch to Next Generation of Rehabilitation Scientists
CAPh Lab Passes the Torch to Next Generation of Rehabilitation Scientists
The Clinical Applied Physiology (CAPh) Lab headed by Dr. Alvaro Gurovich, associate professor and director of the Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, is successfully using a “train the trainer” model that is preparing undergraduate students in the Bachelors of Rehabilitation Science Program to ultimately lead the lab’s community outreach activities and to participate fully as research assistants and co-authors in research projects.
The CAPh Lab celebrated the beginning of its second year this fall with a trip to Tippin Elementary School during national Physiology Understanding (PhUn) Week. The lab’s multi-disciplinary team of undergraduate students engaged second-graders in a series of activities designed to increase their understanding of basic physiological concepts. Last year, the group coordinated a similar event at Hornedo Middle School. This time BS-RHSC seniors (last year’s juniors) were primarily responsible for the event – including training the lower-level undergraduates in how to design the activities for the school children.
In addition to community outreach, students in the CAPh Lab are participating in multiple studies, and are in the midst of analyzing data that will translate into several article submissions – something that most undergraduate students on campus are not heavily involved in. Dr. Gurovich explained how he first arrived at the decision to begin utilizing the talents of the undergraduate students in his lab. “I need highly qualified hands. Something that the (bachelors of) rehabilitation science majors have in common is that they have really high aspirations. To get into any of the rehabilitation programs like OT, PT, Rehabilitation Counseling or Speech Language Pathology…these are highly demanding programs and we see it every time in the admissions process. So the students in the (bachelors of) rehabilitation sciences program are overachieving students. Those are the students I need in my lab,” Gurovich said.
The CAPh lab is currently managed by Francisco Morales Acuna, a student in the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences PhD Program. Morales Acuna has been instrumental in helping Gurovich create a pipeline of undergraduate student researchers in the lab, and will leave a well-trained cohort of undergraduate students behind him after he graduates to ensure continuity. Dr. Gurovich explained the process students went through to become full-fledged members of the lab. “They started with cleaning up the lab…it really is an important task. Then just by being there, they started learning how a lab is set up. Then they moved on to learn how to calibrate the equipment. Now they are in the process of analyzing data, and the senior undergrads will be training the junior undergrads,” he said.
Dr. Gurovich and the students are working on four parallel projects, one of which can’t be discussed for confidentiality reasons. The other three include: flow mediated dilation to investigate the health of arteries in young, healthy subjects; assessment of blood flow during exercise (focusing on the carotid artery) of healthy individuals; and an in-vitro project where the team will culture endothelial cells and simulate blood flow patterns in order to assess gene expression. The team currently has two manuscripts in review. The undergraduate students were working separately on individual abstracts for publication.
Frank Pena, a CAPh Lab member and BS-RHSC student in the Physical Therapy track, shared how this experience will benefit him in his future career. “Dr. Gurovich and Francisco have been very helpful in teaching the methods, the protocol, and all of the steps and what it all means, not just for their objective but also how it will benefit me. I want to become a physical therapist. I feel like this is very helpful because I get to see the populations that can benefit from this research and I’m going to be working with these populations hopefully in the future as a physical therapist. I can better explain what occurs physiologically in (the patients’) bodies and educating them is the most important role we have as rehabilitation scientists.”
Cameron Lazcano, another CAPh Lab member and BS-RHSC student in the Speech Language Pathology track, agreed and elaborated on the interdisciplinary nature of the Lab. “We’re all undergrads and we’ve had the opportunity to present at conferences. I was pushed out of my comfort zone just being there and trying to explain the research…to other professionals. We got to meet different people, to network and to learn from others in other disciplines. In this lab, we’re under the same bachelor’s program but from different areas including OT, PT and Speech Language Pathology. We learned from each other and I believe that we’ll take the skills we’ve learned into our professions,” she said.
The CAPh Lab is expanding its areas of research and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. “We started with exercise and are now moving into nutrition, and probably in January, a study on modalities, which is something that physiotherapists, physical therapists and athletic trainers use to improve blood flow. So it’s not just about exercise, it’s about everything that can be used to improve cardiovascular health,” Gurovich said.
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