Dr. Kajana Satkunendrarajah is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Miami and a principal investigator at The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. She earned her Ph.D. from the School of Medicine at Wayne State University and later completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto in Canada. Dr. Satkunendrarajah's research focuses on understanding the complexities of neural networks that control motor behavior, both in healthy conditions and following spinal cord injuries or other neurological disorders. Her significant contributions include studying cervical excitatory interneurons that exhibit plasticity under respiratory stress and can be genetically modified to restore breathing after cervical spinal cord injury. She also discovered a novel sensory cortical-spinal circuit involved in locomotor control. Her research program aims to enhance our understanding of the neural mechanisms behind breathing and movement while developing innovative therapies to improve motor recovery for individuals with spinal cord injuries. The Kajana Lab uniquely integrates fundamental neuroscience, respiratory and locomotor physiology, and advanced techniques such as viral manipulation, optogenetics, and chemogenetics in transgenic mouse models to manipulate neural circuits at the preclinical level. The ultimate goal of the Kajana Lab is to translate these research findings into effective treatments for individuals with spinal cord injuries.