Robynne G. Braun, MD, PhD

• University of Illinois, Chicago (2000 – 2002) M.S. in Kinesiology with a concentration in Motor Control and Learning.  Thesis: The role of task concept in the performance of new interlimb coordination patterns. 
• University of Illinois, Chicago (2002 – 2007) Ph.D. in Movement Sciences with a concentration in Motor Control and Learning. Dissertation: Visuomotor transformation in movement imitation:  examining predictions based on models of apraxia and motor control.
• Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine (2007 – 2011) Doctorate of Medicine with Honors in Research. Research Project: Kinematic analysis of motor recovery with human adult bone marrow derived somatic cell therapy in a rat model of stroke.
• Loyola University Medical Center (2011 – 2012) Internship in Internal Medicine
• University of Washington Medical Center (2012 – 2015). Residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Research Project:  Effects of mechanical stretch on gene transfer for treatment of inherited myopathies.

I am a physician/scientist with a research background in Kinesiology and clinical training in Rehabilitation Medicine. Since completing my Ph.D. in 2007, I have been building a career path that unites my research background in kinesiology with my clinical interests in musculoskeletal and neurological disorders. While in the M.D. with Honors in Research program at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine (2007 – 2011), I collaborated with the Kartje Lab at the Neuroscience Institute where I developed kinematic methods to evaluate motor recovery with stem cell therapy in a rodent model of stroke. I presented this research at several conferences both nationally (AAPM&R, ACRM) and internationally (ISPRM). During the final year of medical school and first year of residency as Intern in Internal Medicine at Loyola, I published several manuscripts (in Brain and Cognition, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, and Somatosensory and Motor Research), and was awarded the 2010 ERF New Investigator Award by the Foundation for PM&R.

During my subsequent residency training at the University of Washington, I continued to develop my research skills and was accepted in 2013 to the RMSTP, an NIH-funded career development program for emerging clinician/scientists in rehabilitation medicine. While in this program, I collaborated with the Childers and Mack labs at the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine and initiated a new line of research examining the effects exercise on gene therapy uptake for inherited myopathies.

After residency, I was accepted for advanced training at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in the Science of Clinical Investigation Program, where I further refined my knowledge of clinical research design and implementation. This positioned me well for my subsequent appointment as Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Maryland, where my work is focused upon clinical care and research in stroke rehabilitation.

Stroke, rehabilitation, upper extremity, motor control, kinematics

A complete list of published work can be found in my NCBI Bibliography https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/robynne.braun.1/bibliography/public/

• de Havenon A, Bangad A, Skolaris L, Aldridge C, Braun RG, Cole JW, Cramer SC, Lindgren A, Sunmonu A, Worrall BB, Lohse KR. (2022). Understanding Patterns of Missingness in Acute Ischemic Stroke trials: An Analysis of Pooled Participant Follow-up Data. Stroke (accepted, in press)
• Krishnagopal S, Lohse KR, Braun, RG* (2022) Stroke recovery phenotyping through network trajectory approaches and graph neural networks. Brain Informatics 9, 13 (2022). PMCID: 9206968 * indicates senior author status
• de Havenon A, Heitsch L, Sunmonu A, Braun RG, Lohse KR, Cole JW, Mistry E, Lindgren A, Worrall BB, Cramer SC (2021). Accurate Prediction of Persistent Upper Extremity Impairment in Patients with Ischemic Stroke. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2021 Nov 20: S0003-9993(21)01574-4. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2021.10.023. PMID: 34813742.
• Braun, RG, Lai, T, Wright, MA. (2022). Best-practices in poststroke rehabilitation from team-based care to prognostication. Practical Neurology. 2022 Jan: 45-53
• Braun, RG., Kittner, SJ, Ryan, K. A., & Cole, J. W. (2020). Effects of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on functional status and disability in young stroke patients. PloS one, 15(12), e0237033. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0237033
• de Havenon, A., Tirschwell, DL, Heitsch, L, Cramer, SC, Braun, RG, Cole, JW, Reddy, V, Majersik, JJ, Lindgren, AG, Worrall, BB (2020). Variability of the modified Rankin scale score between day 90 and 1 year after ischemic stroke. Neurology: Clinical Practice.
• Braun RG, Wittenberg GF (2021). Motor Recovery: How Rehabilitation Techniques and Technologies Can Enhance Recovery and Neuroplasticity (2021). Semin Neurol. 2021 Apr;41(2):167-176.
• Lindgren AG, Braun RG, Juhl Majersik J, Clatworthy P, Mainali S, Derdeyn CP, Maguire J, Jern C, et al. on behalf of the International Stroke Genetics Consortium (2021). International Stroke Genetics Consortium Recommendations for Studies of Genetics of Stroke Outcome and Recovery. Int J Stroke. 2021 Apr 26:17474930211007288. doi: 10.1177/17474930211007288. PMID: 33739214.
• Braun RG, Heitsch L, Cole JW, Lindgren AG, de Havenon A, Dude JA, Lohse KR, Cramer SC, Worrall BB; GPAS Collaboration, Phenotyping Core (2021). Domain-Specific Outcomes for Stroke Clinical Trials: What the Modified Rankin Isn't Ranking. Neurology. 2021 Aug 24;97(8):367-377.
• Zhang C, Huang MZ, Kehs GJ, Braun RG, Cole JW, Zhang LQ. Intensive In-Bed Sensorimotor Rehabilitation of Early Subacute Stroke Survivors with Severe Hemiplegia Using a Wearable Robot. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 29, pp. 2252-2259, 2021, doi: 10.1109/TNSRE.2021.3121204.
• Braun RG, Wang Z, Mack DL, Childers MK (2014). Gene therapy for inherited muscle diseases: where genetics meets rehabilitation medicine. American Journal of  Physical  Medicine and  Rehabilitation.  2014 Nov;93 (11 Suppl 3):S97-107
• Braun, RG, Andrews, EM, Kartje GL (2012).  Kinematic analysis of motor recovery with human adult bone marrow–derived somatic cell therapy in a rat model of stroke.  Neurorehabilitation and  Neural Repair. Sept; 26: 898-906.
• Golomer EM, Gravenhorst RM, Toussaint Y (2009). Influence of vision and motor imagery styles on equilibrium control during whole-body rotations.  Somatosensory and Motor Research. 26 (4): 105-110.
• Gravenhorst RM & Walter, CB (2009).  Visuomotor transformation in movement imitation: examining predictions based on models of apraxia and motor control. Brain and Cognition Nov;71(2):118-28.
• Gravenhorst RM & Walter, CB (2007). Apraxia and motor control: linking theory and methods across two complementary research domains.  Motor Control, 11(4): 374-405.
• Giuffrida, C, Newton, L, O’Neil, K, Posse, C, Kim, SB, Gravenhorst, RM, Heilman, KM, & Cauraugh, J (2005). Stroke Consequences on Movement Control of the “Unaffected” Upper Limb (abstract). Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 86(10), E1-E27.
• Walter CB & Gravenhorst RM (2004). Placing the perceptual-cognitive approach in perspective. Journal of Motor Behavior.  Dec; 36(4): 400-407.

* Note maiden name Gravenhorst.