| Our Team is currently being assembled and we are actively recruiting new members to join the lab. If you are interested in joining, please feel free to get in contact! |
| Principal Investigator |
| SIMON A. SHARPLES, PHD |
| Huck Early Career Chair in Movement Neuroscience Assistant Professor Simon received his Bachelor of Science followed by a Master of Science in Kinesiology at Wilfrid Laurier University under Dr. Jayne Kamar, investigating inhibitory circuits in the motor cortex and their role in mirror movements during fatigue and Parkinson’s disease. Following graduation, Simon pursued a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Calgary under Dr. Patrick Whelan, where his research demonstrated how dopamine controls spinal locomotor networks in a context-dependent manner, challenging the traditional view of neuromodulation. His work identified dedicated dopaminergic circuits and their dynamic interactions within spinal networks. He then crossed the pond to undertake postdoctoral training at the University of St Andrews under Prof. Gareth Miles, where he characterized motoneuron recruitment mechanisms and identified ion channel maturation as a critical driver of motor control development. He also contributed to the discovery of a novel spinal pathway that facilitates breathing during exercise via dedicated cholinergic circuits. Simon completed his postdoctoral work at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in the laboratory of Dr. Steven Crone, investigating psychedelic-mediated approaches to promote spinal plasticity and breathing recovery following spinal cord injury. He is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University, holding the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Early Career Chair in Movement Neuroscience. His research focuses on understanding how spinal circuits dynamically regulate motor output and how this can be restored following injury. Outside of the lab, Simon spends as much time in nature as possible, enjoying fishing in local streams and hiking in the hills. |
Collaborators
| We work closely with colleagues that are distributed across the globe! Dave Bennett (University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CAN) Travis Rotterman (Boston University, Boston, MA, USA) Filipe Nascimento (University College London, London, UK) M. Gorkem Ozyurt (University College London, London, UK) Gennady Cymbalyuk (Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA) Steve Crone (Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati, OH, USA) |
