Chronic Diseases and Conditions

In 2024, Department of Physical Therapy faculty Shane Koppenhaver, PT, PhD, Clinical Professor and Associate Chair, and Laurel Proulx, PT, DPT, PhD, Clinical Assistant Professor, received a four-year $2.5 million grant award from the Department of Defense to test a novel intervention for female service members suffering from debilitating chronic pelvic pain. The potential outcomes of this research could include better access to care and rapid yet effective treatment, expediting service members’ return to duty. 

Congratulations to the 2024-2025 Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences internal seed funding award recipients! In addition to the Robbins College Research Program, this year saw the introduction of two new internal funding programs: the Pedagogical Scholarship Award Program and the Dr. Mike and Mrs. Micki Maris Endowed Seed Fund for Student Research.

Jessica Feda, PT, DPT, DSc, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy in Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, has received a $200,000, two-year Paris Patla Manual Therapy Research Grant from the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research to study how to best identify patients with neck pain likely to benefit from cervical spinal manipulation.

Cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy treatment are exposed to an array of toxic side effects that can negatively impact their hearts. Baylor University researcher Savannah Rauschendorfer, PhD, Assistant Professor of Exercise Physiology in the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation is researching the effects of chemotherapy on the heart in adolescent and young adult cancer patients and how exercise can lead to overall survivorship. 

Parkinson’s disease is chronic and persistent, and individuals living with Parkinson’s often have trouble controlling the movement of their bodies due to tremors, and can experience impaired balance, slowness of reflexes, and stiffness in their body. The Department of Occupational Therapy in Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences is contributing to novel research in neurological conditions like Parkinson’s, as Barbara Doucet, PhD, OTR, Clinical Associate Professor, Program Director of the Post-Professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) program, and Director of Faculty Development and Scholarship, gains national recognition as an expert in Parkinson’s scholarship. 

Cory Dungan, PhD, and Michael Wiggs, PhD, Assistant Professors in the Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation in Baylor University’s Robbins College of Health and Human Sciences, have received a $355,600 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award (R21) to study the impact that eliminating certain “zombie cells” can have on the muscle health of cancer patients who have received chemotherapy treatment. 

Matt Asare, PhD, MPH, MBA, CHES, Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health, has received a five-year, $2.5 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cooperative Agreement Award (U01) award in partnership with Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah, PhD, Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and Nadia Sam-Agudu, MD, Professor in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

While a general link between alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease is well known, Baylor University researchers are digging into the “why” behind this detrimental association – especially after a night of binge drinking – in a study published in the American Heart Association’s Hypertension journal.