By Alex Nemec, marketing communication specialist
Sheila Schindler-Ivens
Dr. Sheila Schindler-Ivens, associate professor of physical therapy in the college of health sciences, has been granted a $420,000 R21 grant from the National Institutes of Health for her studies on a device that may facilitate lower limb rehabilitation following stroke.
The device, termed CUped (pronounced cupid), has been named for its intended use: to compel use of a paretic (or paralyzed) limb during a movement that resembles pedaling.
Schindler-Ivens founded Venus Rehabilitation Technologies, LLC, which developed the device and won the inaugural Emerging Company Award from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeastern Wisconsin. The grant award will allow Schindler-Ivens to run a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of CUped is in assisting people to walk again.
“I’m grateful to receive this grant from the NIH as it allows me to gather more data on CUped and sharpen our knowledge of how this invention can assist people recovering from strokes,” Schindler-Ivens says. “With time and effort, we believe CUped may be capable of providing an important therapy to stroke survivors on their road to recovery and use of their paretic limb.”
Dr. Allison Hyngstrom, chair and professor of physical therapy, says she has been eager to see how CUped can be featured in the future of stroke recovery.
“Dr. Schindler-Ivens’ tireless work on CUped has already yielded great strides in understanding how physical therapists can administer more effective treatment to stroke patients,” Hyngstrom says. “But with this new R21 award she has a wonderful opportunity to dial in the best way it can be used to help people regain use of their limbs.”
“Dr. Schindler-Ivens work may prove pivotal in advancing neurorehabilitation in patients with hemiplegia,” remarked William E. Cullinan, dean of the college of health sciences. “She is a creative and agile innovator, and it is terrific to see her potentially powerful concept fully develop through the application of the present grant funds.”
Attention researchers: Would you like to bring your research to life? Have an idea for an impactful product or service that can benefit society? Dr. Kalpa Vithalani, executive director of technology transfer in the Office of University Relations, helps connect your ideas and inventions with an ecosystem of corporate, entrepreneurial, legal and investment resources to create the partnerships needed to create value and to benefit the public. It all begins with your Marquette idea or invention.
Contact Vithalani to discuss your idea at 414-288-0668 or kalpa.vithalani@marquette.edu. Please tell her about your idea/invention early to allow time to assess options that will allow for optimal intellectual property protection and leverage the commercial potential of your work.