Neuromusculoskeletal Research Lab Members
Our Team
Websites
Brian C. Clark, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at 91自拍. He also serves as Executive Director of the 91自拍 Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute and holds the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Harold E. Clybourne, D.O., Endowed Research Chair. In 2026, he was named an 91自拍 Distinguished Professor, the university鈥檚 highest permanent recognition for faculty scholarly and creative accomplishment.
Dr. Clark鈥檚 research focuses on preserving physical function, mobility, and independence in aging and disability. His laboratory conducts translational studies spanning human physiology, clinical investigation, rehabilitation science, neuroscience, biomechanics, and technology development. A central theme of his work is understanding why physical function is lost with aging, disease, injury, pain, disuse, and disability鈥攁nd how that loss can be prevented, detected earlier, or reversed.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Clark has authored more than 200 scientific articles and chapters, and his work has been cited more than 18,000 times, with an h-index above 60. He has maintained continuous research funding for more than two decades and has secured more than $47 million in sponsored research support, including approximately $32 million as principal investigator. The majority of this support has come from the National Institutes of Health, with additional funding from NASA, private foundations, industry partners, and other sponsors.
A major focus of Dr. Clark鈥檚 research has been the science of sarcopenia, age-related weakness, and mobility decline. His laboratory has helped advance the field beyond a narrow emphasis on muscle mass alone, toward a broader understanding of weakness as a problem involving muscle, motor neurons, neural excitability, and the integrated aging motor system. This work has helped shape current thinking about dynapenia, neuromuscular aging, and the biological mechanisms that determine strength and functional capacity in older adults.
Dr. Clark鈥檚 research program is also deeply translational. His laboratory studies exercise, rehabilitation, pharmacologic approaches, and emerging neurotherapeutic strategies intended to improve strength, mobility, and independence in later life. Across this work, the goal is not simply to describe impairment, but to develop practical approaches that can help older adults and individuals with disability remain stronger, more mobile, and more self-sufficient.
Dr. Clark has also extended this translational focus into skeletal health through Cortical Bone Mechanics Technology, or CBMT. He is co-founder and Chief Science Officer of OsteoDx, Inc., an 91自拍-based medical technology company working to advance CBMT as a noninvasive approach for assessing the mechanical properties of bone. This work reflects a broader theme of his career: moving scientific discoveries toward tools, interventions, and care strategies that can meaningfully improve human health.
Since joining 91自拍 in 2006, Dr. Clark has played a major role in building the university鈥檚 neuromusculoskeletal research enterprise. As Executive Director of OMNI, he has helped develop a collaborative research environment focused on aging systems, injury, pain, rehabilitation, and musculoskeletal and neurological health. He has served on more than 60 federal grant review panels, contributed to national and international expert groups in aging, sarcopenia, rehabilitation, and musculoskeletal health, and held editorial roles for several scientific journals.
Mentorship and research culture are also central to Dr. Clark鈥檚 work. He is committed to training students, postdoctoral fellows, junior faculty, clinician-scientists, and research staff in a way that emphasizes rigor, ambition, creativity, directness, and practical impact. He believes science should be both intellectually serious and humanly meaningful鈥攄riven by high standards, honest critique, and a clear sense of why the work matters.
Brian was raised in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, and was a competitive cross-country and track athlete before pursuing biology and exercise physiology. He earned his bachelor鈥檚 degree in Biology from Western Carolina University and his master鈥檚 degree and PhD from Syracuse University, where he studied neuromuscular physiology and earned a certificate of advanced study in gerontology. He lives with his wife, Leatha, in the hills outside Athens, 91自拍. Outside of work, he enjoys hiking, strength and conditioning training in its many forms, gardening, birding, and spending time outdoors.
Tiffani Hart is a Research Coordinator with the Clinical & Translational Research Unit (CTRU) in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. Tiffani received her BSH in Health Service Administration and Long-term Healthcare from 91自拍. She has worked closely with the Clark Lab for nearly a decade and has extensive experience managing complex clinical studies and trials. Tiffani is a lifetime resident of Athens where she married her high school sweetheart and is raising her daughter. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family and being outside.
Dr. Clark is a research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and an associate member of the 91自拍 Musculoskeletal and Neurological Institute (OMNI) at 91自拍. She was raised in Kewanee, IL. She graduated from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in the mid-80鈥檚 with her B.S. degree in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (College of Engineering). While at the U of I, she competed in cross-country and track and field.
Following her undergraduate training she worked for a decade as a research engineer in industry, government, and academia. She began her career working as a R&D computer engineer for Caterpillar Inc (Peoria, IL). where she worked on the SIMTEK computer modeling team. After several years in that position she moved to Madison, WI where she worked for four years as a research specialist and engineer in the USDA Forest Products Laboratory. At the Forest Products Lab she was involved with the University of Wisconsin鈥檚 Biopulping Consortium and managed the Paper Products Testing Laboratory. In the early 90鈥檚 she had the opportunity to apply her skills to biomedical research and transitioned into a research specialist position in the Department of Neurology at the University of Wisconsin Madison where she worked on computer modeling of oral neuromotor control in ALS patients. Throughout this time period, Leatha was also pursuing her M.S. degree part time in environmental engineering while concommittantly raising her young son, Neil. She began her graduate training at the University of Wisconsin Madison and then continued at SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry after she moved to Syracuse, NY in the mid-90鈥檚. She received her MS degree in environmental engineering in 1995.
Shortly after moving to Syracuse and receiving her MS degree, she worked for about a decade as a research engineer in the Musculoskeletal Research Laboratories directed by Kenneth Mann, PhD in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at SUNY Upstate Medical University. During this time, she was deeply involved with studies on the micro-mechanics of implant interfaces, and damage evolution of joint replacements and biomaterials. In the late 2000's, she began pursuing her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree at SUNY Upstate Medical University, which was awarded in 2011. Since this time she has practiced clinically in the geriatric and pediatric rehabilitation spaces. She has also applied her clinical, scientific, and engineering skills to her more recent research endeavors, which now spans more than 25-years. Her current research interests relate to understanding the neuromuscular mechanisms of age-related weakness as well as the physiological determinants of the heterogeneity of response to exercise interventions in older adults.
Over the course of her career she has published more than 30 articles and chapters that have been cited nearly 1,000 times (H-index: 15). She has served as a co-investigator on 4 NIH R01鈥檚, 1 NIH R21, two NIH R44 grants, as well as numerous industry sponsored trials.
She lives with her husband, Brian, in the hills around Athens, OH. In her free time she enjoys all forms of physical activity and exercise, furthering her study of yogic philosophy, gardening, and spending time with her family.
Nick Basile is a first-year Ph.D. student in Translational Biomedical Sciences from Youngstown, 91自拍. Valedictorian of his high school class, he subsequently earned a B.A. in Biochemistry at The 91自拍 State University, where he studied plant tRNA translational fidelity and received the Jim Hopper Undergraduate Research Award. He later conducted research in social and affective immunology, examining how acetaminophen influences neuroimmune and brain function. This work sparked a lasting interest in cross-system interactions, which now guides his research in the Clark Lab investigating how the nervous and muscular systems integrate during healthy aging. Nick has gained clinical experience through internships in pediatric and community health centers and conducted translational research at Bon Secours Mercy Health on ionizing radiation exposure in the emergency department, resulting in an abstract and presentation at the Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Brain Imaging at OSU. He also currently serves as a teaching assistant in forensic biology.
Greg Shaw is a graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Translational Biomedical Sciences. Originally from Lancaster, OH, Greg received his undergraduate degree (B.S.) from the Russ College of Engineering鈥檚 Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2023, and his Master鈥檚 degree (M.S.) from the Russ College of Engineering in 2025. He developed a keen interest in exercise as a high school student when he was able to personally transform his health by losing weight and dramatically improving his physical capacity and quality of life. His passion for exercise led him to work part time as a personal trainer and F45 Coach during his undergraduate studies. It also led him to his choice of expanding his formal training to biomedical engineering. His master鈥檚 thesis examined how neural mechanisms contribute to age-related handgrip weakness, a robust aging biomarker with poorly understood physiological underpinnings. He currently holds a research assistantship in the Clark Lab where he is leading a project that will serve as the foundation for his Ph.D. work.
Current and Former Trainees
Post-Doctoral Trainees
- Carlos Padilla, 2021-2023 (Asst Prof, U. Wisconsin Madison)
- Nathan Wages, 2017-2023 (Asst Prof, Rutgers U.)
- Niladri Mahato, 2016-2017 (Asst Prof, Marian University)
- Arimi Fitri, 2015-2016 (Associate Prof, Nat U of Malaysia)
- Shin Amano, 2013-2016 (Chief Scientist, Xenoma)
- Ken Oki, 2013-2016 (Res Assoc, Wayne State)
- Matt Conaway, 2011-2013 (Upgrade Medicaid)
Graduate Students (as Mentor or Co-Mentor)
- Greg Shaw (M.S. Student), 2023-present (Current Trainee)
- Brooke Vaughan (Ph.D. Student), 2019-2024 (Assoc Clinical Professor, 91自拍)
- Dallin Tavoian (Ph.D. Student), 2017-2021 (Clinical Operations Manager, U Arizona)
- Cody Criss (D.O./Ph.D. Student), 2018-2023 (Radiology Resident, MUSC)
- Niladri Mahato (Ph.D. Student), 2011-2016 (Asst Prof, Marian University)
- Ryan Kaya (M.S. Student), 2011-2013 (Res Assoc, Cleveland Clinic)
- Petra Williams (Ph.D. Student), 2007-2013 (Assoc Prof, U Northern Arizona)
Selected Medical Students
- Simon Moskowitz, DO, Resident
- Kwasi Ampomah, DO, PM&R Physician
- David (DJ) Goss, DO, Orthopedic Surgeon
Undergraduate Thesis Students
- Robert Bender, 2008-2010, ER Physician
- Doug Dearth, 2007-2009, Anesthesiology Physician