Helping your recovery from limb loss

by solving neurological problems for people with amputations 

Dr. Amy L. de Jongh Curry 
Associate Professor 
ET328D Biomedical Engineering Department 
Amy.Curry@memphis.edu 
(901) 678-2017 

Research interests: Computational models and biologic experiments to investigate cardiac and neural electrical activity. Current projects: 1) optimizing atrial defibrillation using a physiologically realistic computer model and 2) studying dynamic reorganization in cortical networks in the brain after amputation and deafferentation in rodent models.  

Education:     
B.S. Electrical Engineering, Memphis State University, Memphis, TN, May 1992 
M.S. Electrical Engineering, Memphis State University, Memphis, TN, December 1993 
Ph.D. Biomedical Engineering, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, December 1997 

Brief Research Summary: 
Research interests include cardiac and neural electrophysiology with applications in cardio- and neuro-modulation via implantable or noninvasive stimulation devices and computational modeling and visualization.  Dr. Curry is currently collaborating with a team of neuroscientists, neurologists, and engineers to study pathophysiology of changes in the brain after amputation and deafferentation. Specifically, we are interested in determining if differential mechanisms underlie rapid and delayed dynamic functional changes in cortical networks following permanent forelimb deafferentation (amputation or brachial plexus nerve lesion) and transient inactivation (brachial plexus anesthesia).   

Computational studies have focused on development of anatomically realistic computational models for both external and internal cardiac defibrillation simulation to study potential new techniques to lower energy requirements for both ventricular and atrial defibrillation. Furthermore, we developed a probe to measure internal electric fields, showed that these electric fields are predictive of defibrillation energy thresholds, and showed that that low amplitude stimuli can be used to predict defibrillation efficacy of electrode placement, which can lead to lower energy requirements for implantable devices and higher success rates for external defibrillation. More recently, we completed a simulation study of non-invasive stimulation of the brain (transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS) delivered to sensorimotor cortex in a human model with future efforts planned to create patient-specific and pathophysiological models to explore effects of anatomy and pathophysiology on tuning/optimizing TMS stimulation parameters 

Publications: 
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EK8NWaoAAAAJ&hl=en   
 
Honors/Distinctions:  
Senior Member - IEEE - 2007 
Top 40 Under 40 - Memphis Business Journal - 2009 
Herff Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award - Herff College of Engineering, University of Memphis – 2011 & 2017