The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center in Neuromuscular Diseases (RRTC/NMD) is a $4.0 million five-year grant funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The mission of the RRTC/NMD is to improve the lives of individuals with neuromuscular diseases, and their families, by developing and evaluating new strategies to address lifelong needs for health care, rehabilitation, psychosocial well-being, education,employment, and independent living.

RRTC/NMD also provides a comprehensive training and information dissemination program which is relevant to consumer needs.

We are also dedicated to the concepts of access, inclusion, and consumer participation in research.

The faculty and staff from the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at UC Davis are involved in a variety of research endeavors. These include:

• Contractures in neuromuscular disease
• Cardiac complications in neuromuscular disease
• Cerebral Palsy
• Spasticity
• Exercise in the management of neuromuscular disease
• Objective testing of muscular performance
• Orthotics and Prosthetics
• Child Mobility: Role of Strength, Body Fat and Energy Cost
• Evaluation of tethered cord syndrome by spinal cord ultrasound and somatosensory evoked potentials
• Outcome studies in pediatric traumatic brain injury
• Respiratory muscle recruitment in exercise and fatigue
• Neuromuscular function and recovery from injury in aging skeletal muscle
• Effect of neuromuscular diseases on the function of skeletal muscle
• Magnetic resonance techniques in the evaluation of neuromuscular disease
• Pathophysiology in endurance runners
• Musculoskeletal medicine
• Exercise physiology
• Human locomotion
• Pain perception
• Human performance.
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Further research information is available from the
RRTC/NMD's Web site NMDinfo