<strong>Research: </strong>Valentina’s overall interest in the field of Biomedical Engineering is in the development of more effective rehabilitation therapies for individuals with central nervous system injury. She is particularly interested in neuroprosthetic strategies to induce neural plasticity in networks of neurons impacted by injury, retraining them over time to perform the functions they did prior to the injury. As a Researcher in the CURE program, she will use advanced signal processing techniques to characterize changes in spinal sensory neural activity during targeted electrical stimulation of specific regions of the spinal cord.  Characterizing these interactions may aid development of neuroprosthetic therapies for spinal cord injury that simultaneously improve motor impairments and reduce neuropathic pain.

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<strong>Mentor: </strong>Dr. Jacob McPherson