Research Scientist
Virginia Tech
Dr Susan F Murphy, PhD. Research Scientist and Lab manager in the VandeVord Lab at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
I have over 25 years of experience working in academia based research, most of which has involved working with rodents and have had the opportunity to develop skills and techniques required for this project. Specifically, I joined the VandeVord lab 7 years ago and was placed in charge of coordinating and overseeing a 3 year project studying changes in the brain at 3 time points post-blast injury in a rat model: 1 month, 6 months and 12 months. I have also been part of the team working on the pilot study studying how osteopathic manipulation in the cranial field works on the brain as a treatment for TBI, collecting preliminary data for this proposed project and if funded will continue to direct and oversee the proposed research. I have also been part of the teams developing a blast induced spinal cord injury, that does not require surgery or laminectomy as well as a closed head cortical impact injury. All our animal research includes intensive rodent behavior testing, analysis and interpretation.