Announcing the NeuronS_MATTR
Summer Workshop - 2025
Linkoping University, Sweden | June 22-26

The Human Mechanistic Techniques in Manual Therapy Research: From Microneurography to Tissue Analysis Workshop aims to facilitate knowledge transfer and technical skill development for researchers interested in conducting rigorous human mechanistic studies investigating how massage and other mechanotherapies influence pain, autonomic function, and tissue healing. Through hands-on stations and expert-led sessions, participants will gain practical experience with state-of-the-art techniques while building cross-disciplinary collaborations.

APPLICATION REQUIRED!
Click here to apply.
 Due by February 3, 2025, 5 pm ET.

Summer School Application and Selection Process: 
**Participation Details:**
- Limited to 10 participants through a competitive selection process
- Priority given to US-based researchers (faculty, postdocs, and investigators)
- Selected participants will have access to 6 specialized technique stations including  
  microneurography and autonomic testing
- Post-workshop support and follow-up available

Our Admissions & Awards Working Group will review applications for attending the summer workshop with a goal of inclusive excellence. Our application/selection process is modeled after that of the NINDS-funded MBL Neurobiology Course, which consistently recruits a diverse group of exceptional US trainees to Woods Hole MA each summer. Our network seeks to recruit a diverse cohort with regard to discipline, career stage, US geographic location, gender, ethnicity, race, or disadvantaged educational background.

Past events
Speaker: Mica Rosenow, MS, LMT (December 11, 2024)
​Monitoring Neurophysiological Response to Manual Therapy in Home and Community-Based Care.
​​Bio: Mica Rosenow, MS, LMT is a doctoral candidate in Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Indiana University in Indianapolis, a teaching assistant for the IU School of Health and Human Sciences, and a research assistant for Dr. Niki Munk in the Munk Massage Therapy Laboratory. She is a licensed and practicing community massage therapist holding bachelor’s degrees in Kinesiology and Biology with a minor in Chemistry and emphasis in Anatomy and a master's degree in Health, Human Performance, and Wellness. The Covid pandemic provided an opportunity to work with the Socioneural Physiology Lab and the Traumatic Stress Research Consortium at IU-Bloomington in 2021 which supports her future work in patient care and massage therapy application. Mica was selected for participation in the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health’s Leadership and Education for Students in Integrative Medicine in 2022 and the NIH U24 Neurons_Mattr STM Research Network Summer School in 2023.  Her research interests include physiological mechanisms and confounding variables associated with patient care including manual therapy application, patient history, and provider characteristics, and the use of wearable sensors during patient interactions and treatments to measure and support the effects and outcomes related to touch and manual therapy interventions.
To watch Mica Rosenow's talk click here.

​Speaker: Dr. Jeanie Park (July 23, 2024)
​Sympathetic regulation in humans with chronic disease: microneurography applications.
Bio: Dr. Jeanie Park is an associate professor of medicine and interim associate director of renal medicine at Emory university. She is also a staff nephrologist and Deputy Associate Chief of Staff for research at the Atlanta VA. Her research interests are in autonomic regulation and neural control of blood pressure in patient populations at increased cardiovascular risk such as those with chronic kidney disease, hypertension and PTSD. Her work is funded by NIH, VA and DOD awards.
​To watch Dr. Park's talk click here.

​2024 Force Based Manipulation (FBM) Annual​Meeting (Friday, June 28 2025, 10am-noon EST)
The purpose of this meeting was to provide opportunities to share advances across three National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded force-based manipulation research networks, promote collaboration, and avoid duplication of network efforts. Many joined us online for the meeting’s open session featuring updates from the trans-network scientific working groups and a keynote presentation from a prominent researcher. The keynote presentation was delivered by Valeria Vásquez, Ph.D. from McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston on Fine-Tuning Mechanosensitive Ion Channels: From Basic Science to Translational Research.
To watch the event click here.

​Hands On! ​Summer School! The Neurophysiology of Soft Tissue Manipulation in Musculoskeletal Pain Conditions (June 20-24, 2023, Indiana University)
Our inaugural summer school disseminated scientific and technical knowledge to enable investigators to perform rigorous, mechanistic research on the neurobiology of soft tissue mechanotherapies.  See agenda here and all meeting materials (including recordings here).

​9th Annual Regenerative Rehabilitation Symposium
October 27-29, 2022 (Austin, Texas)

NeuronS MATTR Network Reception 
​IASP 2022 (Toronto)
September 20, 2022
Stratus Restaurant 

NeuronS_MATTR