DPT-PhD in Bioengineering Training Grant (T32)

The Doctor of Physical Therapy-PhD in Bioengineering Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh integrates outstanding evidence-based physical therapy education with innovative bioengineering research training to develop independent clinician-scientists who can identify clinically relevant questions that can be addressed by rigorous solutions grounded in bioengineering principles and who will be leaders in rehabilitation research. An established history of interdisciplinary collaboration between the departments provides the foundation for this program, which is structured to provide a synergistic environment between the clinical and research training so that the students have early engagement in research while they are studying physical therapy, as well as continued physical therapy skill development while they are immersed in their research training. The program will support up to 6 predoctoral trainees per year, and each trainee will be eligible for up to 3 years of support. They will be engaged in learning the fundamental principles of physical therapy, bioengineering, biostatistics, evidence-based practice, and applying the principles through closely-mentored laboratory training, manuscript preparation, and grant-writing. Training program specific activities that augment the individual DPT and PhD curricula include providing the trainees with research experiences during DPT phase, clinical experiences during the PhD phase, exposure to different career pathways, and regular training in the responsible conduct of research, methods to enhance rigor and reproducibility in research, and mentorship. The training program features clinical rehabilitation research faculty with expertise in varied populations (neurologic, orthopaedic, sports, pediatrics, geriatrics) and bioengineering research faculty with backgrounds in biomechanics, signal and image processing, neural engineering, machine learning) to provide a unique training program at the cutting edge of physical rehabilitation. The training program benefits from the institutional support of the University of Pittsburgh and its strong infrastructure of facilities, mentorship training, and resources for faculty and graduate student development. Project Number: 1T32HD121484-01 | Fiscal Year: 2026 | NIH Institute/Center: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) | Principal Investigator: Patrick Sparto (+1 co-PI) | Institution: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH, PITTSBURGH, PA | Award Amount: $176,283 | Activity Code: T32 | Study Section: Special Emphasis Panel[ZRG1 MGG-S (81)] View on NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11335095