Below are the key areas of research taking place in the Molina Lab.
Our current research program aims to validate the safety and utility of lumbar drains for intraspinal pressure monitoring, cerebrospinal fluid diversion, and spinal cord perfusion pressure optimization with the goal of advancing the understanding and treatment of acute spinal cord injury (SCI).
The Molina Lab is interested in understanding the changes to the musculature in adult spinal deformity. It remains to be elucidated exactly to what extent the health of the paraspinal muscle properties contribute to the progression of this condition. Our research efforts include locomotion analysis, muscle testing, and computational disease models derived from data from real patients.
The spinal oncology service at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital has increased substantially due to early detection and safer procedures. After surgical resection, we are studying the composition of these tumors at the molecular and genomic level to understand the structural heterogeneity in these tumors we hope this will provide insight into how well these features might aid in identifying prognostic markers and therapeutic targets.
Currently, mentor’s interaction modalities are restricted to audio and telestrator-based guidance (annotations consisting of lines superimposed over patient’s imagery shown in a nearby display), limiting the ability to describe complex instructions. In our laboratory, we are developing and validating a user-friendly AR-HMD to aid the execution of a complex surgical task by a novice operator guided by an expert surgeon remotely.
With the advancement of wearable passive tracking technology, there is an opportunity to comparatively assess a patient’s function in order to provide objective data regarding safety and efficacy. In an observational study, we are aiming to assess the reliability of conventional wearable devices, such as smart watches, to transmit information about the functional status of spinal patients.