Nathan Neckel
Ph.D., 2008, Catholic University of America (Biomedical Engineering)
New Research Building, Room EP20A
Phone: 202.687.7083
Email: ndn3@georgetown.edu
Dr. Nathan Neckel investigates the use of robotic devices to apply novel rehabilitative training in efforts to restore locomotion following neurological injury. Both rodent models from the “bench” as well as clinical studies at the “bedside” are incorporated.
Nathan Neckel obtained his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the Catholic University of America in 2008. His studies focused on robotic gait training techniques, specifically measuring the forces that stroke patients generated while walking in the Lokomat robotic gait orthosis. In an effort to further understand the clinical potential of robotic gait training, Dr. Neckel became a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Barbara Bregman’s laboratory in the Neuroscience department at Georgetown University. There his research focused on rodent models of spinal cord injury and optimizing robotic gait training patterns to enhance the recovery of overground locomotion. Since joining the Georgetown Neuroscience faculty in 2013, and Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in 2014, Dr. Neckel has concentrated on improving techniques to measure the quadrupedal locomotion of rodents. Of particular interest is how to accurately compare the locomotion of a fast walking healthy rat to a slow walking injured animal.