Biologist Janneke Schwaner receives a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO). With this grant, Schwaner will investigate how our brain and muscles work together during movement on complex terrain. She will conduct her research at the Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences of VU Amsterdam.
We walk on tricky surfaces - trails or stairs - without trouble because our brain and muscles work together. However, scientists still don't completely know how this teamwork helps staying agile, highlighted by the inability to design truly agile robots.
Maintain agility
To research this, Schwaner will combine two experimental approaches with new computer models. Schwaner: “With these approaches, I want to understand how our muscles and senses work together to maintain agility on natural terrain.” Results will give a better understanding of how muscles and senses maintain agility, contributes to improved (human) musculoskeletal models, as well as it inspires development of devices that assist with movement and rehabilitation.
Schwaner has a broad background in biology but describes herself as a neuromechanist. “I am interested in how we make our muscle mechanics and sensory control work together to move effortlessly over difficult terrain. I have a fascination with animals that are incredibly good at that.”
Unique research
During her Veni research, Schwaner will combine assessments of walking animals with classical assessments of muscle properties. “During tests in running animals, we can see exactly how the muscle contracts and relaxes, measure the force the muscle delivers and measure muscle activity accurately. In classical assessments, we can compare these measurements with the properties of the muscle”, Schwaner explains. “What makes my research unique is the combination of these experiments with musculoskeletal models. These models, validated with unique experimental data, allow me to truly examine the underlying mechanisms that enable us to walk and run over uneven terrain without falling.”
Schwaner is very happy to have received the Veni grant. “This is recognition that I am on the right track, my persistence has been rewarded”, she said. She also thanks her mentors. “I realise I am standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Schwaner received her bachelor's and master’s degrees in animal sciences from Wageningen University & Research. She then received her PhD from the University of Idaho in the United States. “There, I studied the neuromechanics and muscle dynamics of jumping kangaroo rats, including how they use their tails to change direction in the air.” She then worked as a postdoc at the University of California, Irvine, and is now working at KU Leuven as a Marie Sklodowska Curie postdoc. There, she investigates the underlying mechanisms of the musculoskeletal system of the guinea fowl.
Veni is part of the NWO Talent Programme It allows researchers who have recently obtained their PhD to conduct independent research and develop their ideas for a period of three years.