This position is for the Fall 2025 semester.
The SFU Aging and Population Health Laboratory (APHL) directed by Dr. Dawn Mackey conducts
research to help older adults live active, healthy, and independent lives by generating and disseminating
high-quality evidence to enhance physical activity, mobility, and social connectedness.
We are currently recruiting a USRA student for Fall 2025 to assist primarily with two of the lab’s
ongoing research programs:

(1) A CIHR-funded research project entitled, “Healthy Cities – Implementation Science Team in
Healthy Aging.” The vision of our research team (with investigators across BC and in Australia)
is to use implementation science approaches to counter the epidemics of physical inactivity,
loneliness and social isolation in older people who live in medium- and large-sized cities. More
specifically, we are studying how to adapt an effective health-promoting program, Choose to
Move, to serve more diverse groups of older adults, including older men.

(2) Development of a core outcome set to standardize outcome selection and measurement in
randomized controlled trials that test the efficacy and/or effectiveness of physical activity
interventions for older adults. More specifically, we are at the stage of seeking expert consensus
on core outcomes via a Delphi study.

The USRA student will support these research projects in a number of important ways, which may
include:
• Assist with collection, analysis, and interpretation of data from literature reviews, surveys,
interviews, and focus groups
• Assist with presenting results (e.g., text, tables, figures) and preparing publications (e.g.,
abstracts, manuscripts, posters)
• Assist with producing knowledge translation outputs and events
• Complete administrative tasks associated with the research (e.g., note-taking at meetings)
• Communicate regularly and effectively with study staff and investigators
• Participate actively in lab meetings and journal clubs

This position gives students the opportunity to obtain hands on experience with team-based health
research aimed at improving physical activity, mobility, and social connectedness for older adults. In
addition to the responsibilities listed above, the successful student may have the opportunity to design
and lead an independent research project of appropriate scope for the time allotted. A future directed
studies semester and co-authorship on publications (e.g., abstracts, manuscripts, posters) may also be
possible, dependent on satisfactory performance.

The Aging and Population Health Laboratory (APHL) is located at SFU Burnaby
(www.drdawnmackey.com) and affiliated with the UBC/VCHRI Centre for Aging SMART on the
campus of Vancouver General Hospital (www.agingsmart.ca). This USRA position will likely
involve hybrid working arrangements (a combination of in-person work and work from home).
The position will involve regular lab meetings and meetings with Dr. Mackey.

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Patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) exhibit loss of mitochondrial function and increased inflammatory markers, which can be measured in the periphery via blood draw. In parallel, the brain signaling of these patients is also altered relative to healthy adults, and these neurophysiological changes are related to the severity of clinical symptoms. Measuring inflammation and mitochondrial function in the brain is difficult in vivo, limiting research into the interplay between cellular energetics, inflammation, and changes in neurophysiological signaling in AD.

Our research will use a new spatial colocalization approach to combine functional brain imaging with blood markers and atlases of oxygen utilization in the brain to test whether the effects of Alzheimer’s disease on peripheral mitochondrial energetics and inflammation are associated with neurophysiological alterations, and whether any such relationships are relevant for clinical symptom severity.

All data have already been collected and pre-processed for this project.
Required qualifications: research experience, basic programming in R/RStudio, linear modeling
Recommended qualifications: experience with functional brain imaging data

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Our lab’s long-term goal is to use knowledge of brain organization to improve teaching/learning and make brains more resilient to injury. In one line or research we map rat brains to understand how muscles are coordinated by the cortex. We study individual variation and change in this brain organization and how these factors relate to behaviour and recovery from brain injury. In a second line of research, we map the muscular control of the wings, tongue, and larynx of Egyptian fruit bats. Studying how brain circuits coordinate flight, echolocation, vocal communication and mastication could illuminate the evolution of specialized behaviours, including language in humans.

(Project details depend on which term the USRA takes place.)

Student will participate in and/or analyze data from brain mapping experiments from either or both of our rat and bat lines of research. Specific duties may include building and testing equipment; participating in small-animal anesthesia and surgery; participating in occasional 10- 20 h electrophysiological mapping experiments; sectioning, mounting, staining and analyzing brain tissue; reconstructing sensory and motor maps of cortex; extracting kinematic data from and generating illustrations of video of movements evoked by intracortical microstimulation; and analyzing EMG data from muscles and relating this to motor maps of the brain.
In general, students will be expected to make connections between datasets, learn new skills, solve problems, think about the big picture, and ask questions.

Required qualifications:
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team
• Excitement about learning and mastering new laboratory techniques
• Motivated and reliable
• Competency on computers
• At least some experience coding in MATLAB or comparable languages
• Excitement about neuroscience and plasticity
• Organizational skills

Recommended qualifications: (Skills to learn or build on) Adobe Illustrator, MATLAB, Excel Electrical, mechanical Organizing information Anesthesia and surgery Handling and staining sectioned brain tissue Data analysis

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In this summer USRA position, the student will join the SFU Injury Prevention and Mobility Lab (https://www.sfu.ca/ipml) in a project to measure and analyze the mechanisms of falls in mountain biking (MTB). MTB involves frequent falls, often in complex and hazardous environments, where the consequences of falling can be severe. Our research seeks to generate new knowledge on how risk for falls and injuries in MTB depends on situational and environmental factors, and on human motor skills, decision-making processes and reactive responses. We are also examining how the mechanisms of falls depend on sex, gender, age and experience. The project may focus on one or more areas of the following ongoing areas of research on falls in MTB:

(1) Qualitative analysis of protective and risk-taking behaviour in MTB. The student will interview mountain bikers on the frequency and circumstances of their falls, and the approaches they use for managing risk for falls and injuries.

(2) Quantitive analysis of movement patterns during falls in MTB. The student will examine movement patterns and protective responses during falls, based on analysis of video footage of falls in MTB.

(3) Decision making on path selection in MTB. The student will conduct experiments with human participants to examine risk-taking behaviours in path selection and speed in MTB.

Required qualifications: Strong aptitude and interest in biomechanics and behavioural neuroscience
Recommended qualifications: Strong written and oral communication skills

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