Peter Jonas Grahn, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic

Abstract
Characterizing Sensorimotor Activity during Spinal Stimulation in Humans

This presentation will provide an overview of the achievements that have been made by the research team at Mayo Clinic since initiating a clinical trial (NCT04736849) in 2019 that involves spinal neuromodulation in humans with lower extremity dysfunction due to traumatic spinal cord injury. Briefly, the goal of this project to expand the understanding of spinal sensorimotor activity produced during spinal stimulation to enable functions in humans with SCI.

Bio
In 2005, Peter suffered a swimming accident that resulted in a cervical SCI and permanent quadriplegia. Following his SCI, Dr. Grahn completed 10 months of in-person rehabilitation which was focused on strategies to independently perform activities of daily living. The total absence of therapies that aimed to recover function, combined with his scientific curiosity to understand spinal cord injury, motivated him to earn an undergraduate degree in biology and chemistry at Southwest Minnesota State University. After completing his undergraduate degree in 2011, Peter joined the Mayo Clinic to pursue a PhD in neuroscience which provided the opportunity to work on numerous neuromodulation research projects that spanned the entire spectrum of clinical translation (e.g., cellular approaches to regenerate neural tissues in animal models of SCI, development and testing of neuromodulation devices in large animal models, clinical trials of spinal stimulation, etc.). Since completing his PhD training in 2016, Dr. Grahn’s research has focused mainly on spinal stimulation during motor rehabilitation in humans with spinal cord injury.