Fellows
Michael R. Karns, MD 2017
R. Judd Robins, MD 2015
Jeffrey M. Reagan, MD 2014
Raj S. Kullar, MD 2014
J. Benjamin Jackson III, MD 2013
Pete T. Scheffel, MD 2012
Medical Student
Brittany Percin is a medical student completing a research year at the University of Utah. She received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Caltech, where she researched cortical resection and neural circuits corresponding to fear in mice. During her undergraduate career, she also completed a summer of alcohol addiction research at the University of California San Francisco Neurology department. Brittany attends medical school at the University of California San Diego, where she has become involved in multiple clinical facing Orthopaedics research studies under the mentorship of Dr. Kent. She is now working on projects studying the biomechanics of reverse total shoulder arthroplasty as well as snapping scapula syndrome. Brittany enjoys skiing, swimming, and running with her dog.
Research Fellows
Dr. Ishikawa was born in Tokyo, Japan. He received a B.S. degree in Physical Therapy from International University of Health and Welfare (Japan) in 2008. After obtaining a physical therapy license, he started clinical career at Tohoku University Hospital (Japan). He gained clinical experience in orthopaedic field under the direction of Drs. Eiji Itoi (MD, PhD) and Nobuyuki Yamamoto (MD, PhD). In addition to clinical work, he continued to graduate school in 2010 and received a Ph.D. degree in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation from Tohoku University (Japan) under the mentorship of Drs. Shin-Ichi Izumi (MD, PhD) and Takayuki Muraki (PT, PhD) in 2015. He has worked as a research fellow in the ORL since December 2020. His research interests are biomechanics of the shoulder and elbow, and rehabilitation for shoulder disorders and sports injuries. He enjoys travelling, jogging, and skiing in his free time.
Matthijs grew up in Aalter, a town between Ghent and Bruges in the Flemish part of Belgium. After obtaining his medical degree at the University of Ghent (Belgium) in 2013, he started his clinical training in Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology at the University Hospital of Basel (Switzerland) under the direction of Drs. Victor Valderrabano (MD, PhD) and Marcel Jakob (MD). Parallel to his residency program, he started a PhD at the University of Ghent focused on the study of the glenohumeral relationship in normal and arthritic shoulders by use of three-dimensionally reconstructed CT-scans under the mentorship of Drs. Lieven De Wilde (MD, PhD) and Alexander Van Tongel (MD, PhD). Driven by his interest in the morphology and biomechanics of the shoulder joint, Matthijs joined the ORL in January 2016 as a research fellow. In his free time, he enjoys cycling, jogging, skiing and music.
Dr. Thomas Suter was born in Freienwil, a small town near Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. Suter received his medical doctorate from the University School of Medicine in Zurich under the supervision of Drs. Jose Romero and Christian Gerber (Uniklinik Balgrist, Zurich). He completed his orthopaedic residency at multiple hospitals in Switzerland. Dr. Suter received his board certification from the Swiss Orthopaedic Society in 2012, followed by a fellowship in traumatology and shoulder/elbow surgery at Kantonsspital Baselland under the direction of Ariane Gerber Popp, MD and Beat Hintermann, MD. He has worked as a research fellow in the ORL since September 2013. Dr. Suter is interested in biomechanics and digital imaging processing, with concentrations in shoulder arthroplasty and subacromial impingement. In his free time Thomas likes travelling, skiing and hiking with his wife.
Jun Kawakami, MD 2019 – 2021
Nicola Krähenbühl, MD 2017 – 2018
Graduate Students
Evan graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Bioengineering in June 2018. During his undergrad he earned a position in the Pete & Rosalie Johnson internship program; working under Dr. Sandra Rugonyi (Ph.D.) at Oregon Health & Science University, working to characterize the computational flow mechanics of cardiovascular development in embryo. His second internship was in pharmaceutical research and development with Patheon (now Thermo Fisher Scientific), in Bend, OR. There he developed an optimized selection of spray-dried excipients for solid dose tablet production through his own design of experiment analysis. Upon graduation, he accepted a Research Assistant position at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; working as part of team developing a novel mechanical thrombectomy device for the removal of blood clots in ischemic stroke.
Evan is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Utah with a focus on medical device innovation and design. Evan currently works in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory under Dr. Heath Henninger, where he is studying the 3-D resting scapula position and it's implications for surgical techniques, and patient mobility pre and post-operatively.
Hema graduated from University of California, San Diego with a B.S. in Bioengineering in December 2013. She worked on Computational Fluid Dynamics and Cartilage Tissue Engineering projects at her undergraduate institution. As part of her senior design project under Dr. Alison Marsden, she made contributions to creating a diagnostic tool for thrombosis prediction in Kawasaki Disease patients using fluid flow simulations in the coronary arteries. She was involved in research at the Cartilage Tissue Engineering Laboratory under Dr. Robert Sah to study the mechanical properties of human knee cartilage and investigate the differences between normal and osteoarthritic cartilage. In addition to academic research she took an active part in campus organizations such as Engineering World Health and Society of Women Engineers. She gained experience in the applications of research through industry internships at Genentech Inc., Oceanside (CA) and Biological Dynamics Inc., San Diego (CA). She decided to pursue a PhD in Bioengineering and joined the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory to work under Dr. Heath Henninger studying biomechanics and kinematics of the human shoulder. She is currently involved in the dynamic shoulder scapula simulator project.
Tyler grew up along the Wasatch Front in Utah and earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2017 from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. As an undergrad, he was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering organizations. Tyler was active in their outreach programs to local elementary schools. These programs introduced young students to the basic principles of engineering and system control.
For his senior Capstone project, Tyler participated in Boeing’s AerosPACE program as a team project manager. During his time, he worked closely with Dr. Steven Gorrell (Ph.D.) and students from across the country in designing, building, and flying an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for emergency services applications. For three consecutive summers, Tyler interned with Janicki Industries designing and building ergonomic solutions to mitigate injury related to repetitive motion and updating controls for CNC systems.
Tyler is now pursuing a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah with a focus on machine design and controls. Currently, he is working under Dr. Heath Henninger (Ph.D.) in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, where he is studying the effects of glenoid inclination after shoulder replacement. Tyler also does mechanical design, modeling, and manufacturing for the shoulder simulator project.
Klevis graduated from the University of Texas, Austin with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering in May 2007. Upon graduation, he worked in the software industry in various technical positions for 8 years. Afterwards, he decided to pursue a PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Utah starting in the Fall semester of 2015. Upon starting his PhD, Klevis worked at the Musculoskeletal Research Laboratories with Dr. Jeffrey Weiss studying the biomechanics of angiogenesis. In the Fall semester of 2016 Klevis joined the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory to work under Dr. Heath Henninger studying the biomechanics and kinematics of the human shoulder.
Chris grew up on Long Island, New York and earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Sustainable Engineering from SUNY Binghamton in upstate New York in 2013. During his undergraduate studies, he performed research in Fluid Mechanics under the supervision of Dr. Timothy Singler (PhD). Over the course of two summers, Chris interned as a Mechanical Engineer at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, NY in the Superconducting Magnet Division under the mentorship of Michael Anerella (PhD). There, he worked in collaboration with BNL and the European Nuclear Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in order to develop the structural design for a superconducting magnet anti-hydrogen trap for research purposes. Immediately after graduation from SUNY Binghamton, he chose to pursue his PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Utah with a track in Orthopaedic Biomechanics. He is currently working under Dr. Heath Henninger (PhD) in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory, where his focus is on the kinematics and biomechanics of the human shoulder, with a focus on reverse total shoulder arthroplasty and biceps tenodesis. Outside of his schooling and laboratory work, Chris stays active by playing soccer, snowboarding, mountain biking, and playing guitar.
Kaitlyn is a visiting student from the University of Victoria, British Columbia where she is completing a MASc in Mechanical Engineering. Under the supervision of Dr. Joshua Giles, she is developing subject-specific musculoskeletal models for consideration of the effects of both reverse shoulder implant configuration and variable individual anatomy on shoulder biomechanics. She previously received a Bachelor's in Engineering in Mechanical Engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where she completed an undergraduate research project on the analytical modelling of reluctance actuators for use in high precision mechatronic systems. At the University of Utah, she is currently undertaking a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) supported foreign fellowship to collect in-vivo shoulder kinematic data including biplane fluoroscopy and electromyography. In her free time, she enjoys running, sports, and the outdoors.
Residents
Joseph Featherall 2023-24
Anthony Montanez 2014-16
Jeremy Gilliland 2012
Undergraduates
Peyton King 2022 - UROP Award Recipient 2023
Breydon Hardy 2022 – UROP Award Recipient 2023
Tanner Ashby 2020 - 2022
Joshua McIntosh 2021 - 2022
Zachary Glenn 2019 – 2022
Mitchell S. Kirkham 2019 – 2021
Cameron Pascua 2020 - 2021
Brendan Oler 2019 - 2021
Jaren C. Forsyth 2019 – 2020
Spencer W. Jones 2018 – 2020
Corby J. Dixon 2018 – 2019
Gentry M. Feeney - UROP Award Recipient 2017 - 2019
Hanna K. Shluker - UROP Award Recipient 2016 - 2019
Zachary W. Wade 2017 - 2019
Joshua D. Johnson 2017 - 2018
William J. Lewis - UROP Award Recipient 2016 - 2018
Sarah E. Brady - UROP Award Recipient 2016 - 2017
Morgan T. Izykowski - UROP Award Recipient 2015 - 2017
Savanna M. Bennett 2016 - 2017
Spencer K. Kendell 2016 - 2017
M. Serhat Kariparduc 2016
Dallin Rees 2014
Sean T. Tagge, BS 2014
Xin Yang, BS - UROP Award Recipient 2012 – 2014
Kristen R. Petersen, BS 2011 – 2012