BIOENGINEERING
April Chambers, PhD
302 Schenley Place | 4420 Bayard Street | Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Research Assistant Professor Laboratory Director, Human Movement and Balance Laboratory
P: 412-624-9898 ajcst49@pitt.edu
Dr. Chambers’ Background and Research Interests
Dr. April J. Chambers is a Research Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. Dr. Chambers is a bioengineer with research expertise in the fields of gait biomechanics and fall prevention. Dr. Chambers serves as the Laboratory Director of the Human Movement and Balance Laboratory. The overall goal of her research is musculoskeletal injury prevention and improving quality of life. Dr. Chambers’ research interests include occupational biomechanics and injury prevention in healthy and special populations, as well as medical device design and translational research.
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Dr. Chambers is currently working on projects that examine musculoskeletal injury risk during long term standing. The goal of her research is to investigate the impact of prolonged standing on in vivo changes in articular cartilage deformation within the knee joint and lower extremity muscle characteristics. A second objective is to investigate the impact of human and environmental factors on these effects. Dr. Chambers uses novel and innovative methodologies to assess the effect of prolonged standing on measures of joint and muscle injury risk. Dr. Chambers’ research and advanced training uniquely position her to conduct research incorporating new methods, not traditionally used in ergonomics, of evaluating injury risk and developing more effective interventions to reduce musculoskeletal injuries in the workplace. Dr. Chambers enjoys collaborating with a multidisciplinary group of researchers including biomechanical engineers, physicians, physical/occupational therapists, and exercise scientist to achieve her research goals. Additional research projects include a wide range of experimental studies examining fall prevention following external disturbances such as slipping or tripping, ergonomics and human factors, medical device design, and special populations including amputees, obese adults and the elderly. Dr. Chambers collects her data at the Human Movement and Balance Laboratories. These are start of the art facilities designed and equipped to analyze the dynamics of human motion and human factors during standing, walking, balance perturbations, activities of daily living and occupational tasks.
DEPARTMENT OF BIOENGINEERING