We are excited to welcome postdoctoral fellow Rachana Gangwani, PT, PhD, to Jefferson Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute. Dr. Gangwani will be mentored by Laurel Buxbaum, PsyD, Director of the Cognition and Action Lab, Institute Faculty, and Professor at Thomas Jefferson University, as well as Shailesh Kantak, PT, PhD, former Institute Faculty and current Co-Director of the Pathokinesiology Laboratory at Rancho Research Institute.

Dr. Gangwani received her Bachelor of Physiotherapy degree from Manipal Academy of Higher Education India, and she is a licensed physical therapist both in India and in the U.S. Fascinated by stroke rehabilitation and neuroplasticity in the brain after stroke, she completed her Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation Science under the supervision of Tanvi Bhatt, PT, PhD, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her master’s research examined perturbation-based training to reduce fall risk in individuals with stroke. Specifically, she studied the biomechanics of responses to perturbations, and how these variables were related to fall risk after stroke.

Interested in learning more about the neural mechanisms involved in motor learning and motor recovery after stroke, Dr. Gangwani next enrolled in the doctoral program in Human Movement Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was advised by Jessica Cassidy, PT, DPT, PhD. Her doctoral research focused on investigating the mechanisms that underlie neural plasticity after stroke and assessing potential biomarkers of function and recovery. She was particularly interested in better understanding the interplay between cognitive and motor domains post-stroke, and how cognitive processes contribute to motor (re)learning.

Dr. Gangwani’s excellence in research, academics, leadership, and service have been recognized with numerous scholarship awards, as well as the Allied Health Science Achievement Award from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Department of Health Science Student Research Excellence Award from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

At our Institute, Dr. Gangwani will work with Drs. Buxbaum and Kantak on an ongoing project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, investigating the disparity between a person’s actual use of and their sensori-motor capacity to use the affected arm after stroke. This disparity is termed “non-use,” and it is an urgent problem in neurorehabilitation that impacts disability, caregiver burden, and quality of life.

In this project, Drs. Buxbaum, Kantak, and Gangwani will determine the associations between arm non-use and variables including participant demographics, stroke-related variables, arm function, pain, sustained attention/effort, self-confidence, and other capacities known to influence stroke outcomes. They will also use advanced neuroimaging methods to develop imaging biomarkers associated with arm non-use. In addition, the team aims to validate a novel virtual reality assessment tool that has the potential to rapidly and reliably evaluate arm non-use, which will be useful clinically and will determine whether non-use is influenced by attentional task demands. This research will facilitate identification of individuals who are at risk of non-use and inform the development of treatments that address the underlying mechanisms.

Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Dr. Gangwani as she begins working with us at the Institute!