Project Grant R21EB038618

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering awarded the Regents of the University of Minnesota $220,588 on August 25, 2026, under the Discovery and Applied Research for Technological Innovations to Improve Human Health program (CFDA 93.286).

The award funds a three-year project to develop methodology for identifying motor phenotypes in a normative population using multimodal sensing and deep learning-based clustering. The research will collect kinematic and inertial measurement data from 400 individuals spanning ages 5 to 85 and older while participants perform prescribed reaching movements and functional tasks including pouring and drinking. The team will use deep representation networks to encode motion in latent space and apply clustering optimization to determine movement phenotypes, with the long-term goal of inferring a patient's movement phenotype from clinical recordings using limited equipment and time. The project addresses limitations in traditional clinical motor assessments by applying kinematic analysis to detect subtle impairments and compensatory movement strategies that can guide targeted interventions.

Performance occurs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The period of performance runs through May 31, 2029. The award is classified as a Project Grant, a standard assistance type under NIBIB's portfolio of hypothesis- and technology-driven research supporting biomedical imaging and bioengineering discovery and application.