People
A Collaborative & Diverse Group

Dr. Jinsook Roh
Principal Investigator
Dr. Jinsook Roh is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston, TX. Her research program focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms of motor coordination in healthy and pathological populations (esp. stroke) and translating the resultant scientific findings to develop new therapeutic strategies to improve motor function after neural injuries. She holds her graduate degree in Systems and Computational Neurosciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with undergraduate Physics background.
Before joining UH, she worked as an Assistant Professor in Kinesiology at Temple University. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (#1 rehabilitation research hospital for > 25 years in the US) and a fellowship at Northwestern University. She has implemented research projects to identify and characterize abnormalities in synergistic muscle coordination in stroke survivors. Dr. Roh received several research awards and fellowship that includes American Heart Association Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010-20120). Dr. Roh currently performs research projects supported by extramural funds, one from the American Heart Association Scientist Development Grant (2017-2020) as the PI, one from NIH R01 (2016-2021) as a co-I, and one international grant from National Rehabilitation Center in South Korea (2018-2019) as the co-PI. She also likes teaching and mentoring students with diverse experiences. When she finds a free time, she enjoys cooking Korean food, walking with her husband, and chatting with her friends with a diverse background.
In her life, she found that the source of pure joy in her inner man is to see positive changes in people’s life. That motivates her to do her science in human motor rehabilitation and neural engineering.

Gang Seo
Ph.D. Student
Gang Seo is a Ph.D. student working for REIGN Lab since September 2018. He pursued both of his undergraduate(BS) and master(MS) study in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette IN. The concentration of his research during graduate school was to upgrade and re-optimize a miniature, wireless, closed-loop biological implant for neuromodulation. His interest in human neuroscience led him to join the REIGN Lab where has a clear goal of investigating novel therapeutic approaches for stroke survivors who suffer from impaired neuromotor control. Outside of the lab, he often spends the time to play the musical instruments.

Mohammad Ansab Khan
Undergraduate Student
Mohammad Ansab Khan joined the REIGN Lab as an undergraduate research intern in December 2018. He is currently completing his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston with a focus in neural and cognitive rehabilitation. Ansab joined the lab with the intent to help those with diminished neuromotor control, and to gain experience in the field of neurorehabilitation. In the lab, he reviews literature targeting isometric force generation in stroke survivors for potential rehabilitative strategies, and helps to collect data for the dissociation of synergistic muscles in healthy subjects. In his free time, Ansab plays competitive basketball and is learning Arabic.

Katherine Pham
Undergraduate Student
Katherine Pham is an undergraduate research intern helping in Dr. Roh's REIGN lab. She is currently going into her third year as a BME major at the University of Houston. Her research interest is in innovative neuroscience and neurorehabiliation technologies. In the REIGN lab, she assists in literature surveys and data collection for research. After graduating, she hopes to pursue a higher education in BME and continue in the field of research. On her free time, she enjoys to play tennis and jam out on the guitar.

Matthew Palmer
Undergraduate Student
Matthew Palmer is a Junior studying Biomedical Engineering at University of  Houston. He has been an undergraduate research assistant in REIGN Lab since May 2019 with research interests in human Biomechanics and neuroscience. His hobbies include sports and relaxing.

Chris Taylor
External Member (Graduate Student)
Chris Taylor is a Ph.D. student in the Neuromotor Science program at Temple University. He completed his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University in the science of Nursing. He has worked as a trauma ICU and critical care nurse for 5 years before returning to academia. His background as a competitive Olympic weightlifter and nationally ranked coach fueled his desire to better understand human movement.
In 2017 his graduate studies at Temple University lead him to Dr. Roh’s lab where he contributed to research on muscle synergy analysis of isometric and dynamic reaching tasks in stroke survivors. He continues to work as an external collaborator to the lab group.
Currently, he is researching human motor unit discharge patterns in the Spinal Neuromotor Lab at Temple University.

Leo Ma
External Member (Graduate Student)
Leo is currently finishing his last year in Doctoral of Physical Therapy at Temple University. His education includes a B.S in Kinesiology and a M.S in Neuromotor Science at Temple University in 2016. Leo’s research focuses on exploring human movement from a variety of perspectives and techniques, with the goal of implementing the most effective interventions to improve functional independence of patients with movement disorders or diseases. When not studying or working, Leo likes to get lost in a good novel or scenic hike.

Manuel Portilla
External Member
Manuel from Quito, Ecuador worked as a lab technician in the Department of Kinesiology at Temple University. He did his MSc in Bioengineering at Temple University, Philadelphia, and BS in mechatronics at Equinox University of Technology, Quito, Ecuador. His hobbies are programming and playing the violin. The following list shows his research interests: 1) Multivariable analysis methods for processing information, 2) Neural mechanisms of motor coordination, 3) Application and development of spectroscopic analysis techniques to cartilage pathologies, 4) Tissue engineering

Dr. Karthik Devarajan
Collaborator
Fox Chase Center Center, Statistics (https://www.foxchase.org/karthik-devarajan)

Dr. Sang Wook Lee
Collaborator
Catholic University of America, BME (https://engineering.catholic.edu/research-and-faculty/faculty-profiles/biomedical/lee-sang-wook/index.html)

Dr. Sheng Li
Collaborator
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, PM&R(https://med.uth.edu/pmr/faculty/sheng-li-md-phd/)

Dr. Pranav Parikh
Collaborator
University of Houston, HHP (http://grants.hhp.uh.edu/parikh/index.php)

Dr. Hyung-Soon Park
Collaborator
KAIST, ME (http://rehab.kaist.ac.kr/)

Dr. Marc Slutzky
Collaborator
Northwestern University, Neurology (https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/faculty-profiles/az/profile.html?xid=16463)

Dr. Yi-Ning Wu
Collaborator
University of Mass Lowell, PT (https://www.uml.edu/Health-Sciences/PT/faculty/Wu-Yi-Ning-Winnie.aspx)

Dr. Young Mok Yun
Collaborator
Harmonic Bionics, Inc (http://harmonicbionics.com/)

Dr. Yingchun Zhang
Collaborator
University of Houston, BME (http://www.bme.uh.edu/faculty/zhang)