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Publish Date: May 30, 2023, 12:24 am
Healthcare Colloquium: Space Biomechanics| Prof. K.K.Deepak
We are happy to announce the launch of the "Healthcare Colloquium", a seminar series by the Center for Biomedical Engineering. The inaugural talk is by Prof. K. K. Deepak, Visiting Professor at CBME and Former Dean and Former Head of Department of Physiology, AIIMS.
Title of the talk: Space biomechanics: Microgravity simulations and countermeasures
Venue: Room 526, LHC
Date and Time: April 05, 2023 at 3 PM
Summary of the talk:
Gravity plays a vital role in proper functioning of the cardiovascular and muscular system of the human body. However, the absence of gravity causes deconditioning and demineralization in muscles and bones. The exposure to microgravity causes the fluid shift i.e., redistribution of blood from lower limb to thoracic region. Similar changes are also observed in patients, who are on prolonged bed rest mainly due to surgery, spinal cord injury and coma. This contributes to a decrease in exercise performance and increased orthostatic intolerance upon returning to Earth.
The speaker has significantly contributed to microgravity simulation studies in India. He will describe the microgravity simulations and the countermeasures for microgravity induced effects.
He will describe his innovation, a gravity loading suit, called Countermeasure Gravitation Load Modulating Body Gear. His studies have shown that the CGLM body gear, which is a small weight device, can increase sympathetic activity even in head down tilt (HDT) microgravity analogue and requires no external power source to work. Also, it has increased both phasic and tonic muscular activity significantly in antigravity musculature. This makes it a promising countermeasure for muscle deconditioning- both in space as well as on earth. Thus, the present body gear may help in performing day to day physical activities in space, and help to do yoga in space. On Earth, it may help in post fracture recovery, for training of sports persons and athletes to tone anti-gravity muscles. Further, this can be used for the patients lying on bed for a long time, providing extra help in rehabilitation.
Biography of the speaker:
Prof K. K. Deepak (MD, PhD, DSc) is currently a Visiting Professor at Center for Biomedical Engineering at IIT Delhi. Earlier till Jan 2022, Prof. Deepak headed the Department of Physiology and is Dean (Exams) at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He set up the first Autonomic Function Lab in India (1989) and Vascular Function lab (2000). The Autonomic Function lab, founded in 1989 provides clinical services, research facilities and training. He initiated clinical physiology in the country. Its impact is seen in the form of over 150 publications in the field of autonomic neuroscience and development of clinical services in the country. He pioneered the development of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and disseminated it throughout the country. His team has developed an indigenous cloud-based system for centralized HRV systems. In the past at IIT Delhi, he contributed to several projects since the late 90s. He has worked with other IITs & other engineering institutions. He is involved in guidance of PhD theses at IIT Madras and serves there as an Adjunct Professor.
Prof. Deepak has devised a blood pressure simulation model, which was later used in NASA experimentation. He also devised the techniques of EMG biofeedback for patients of hand dystonia and electro-gastro-graphy(EGG) biofeedback for irritable bowel syndrome. He has worked on brain stimulation by using vagal stimulation and yogic breathing. He has contributed to basic research in the field of Yoga & Meditation and its clinical application. He is also investigating the role of yogic manoeuvres for their applications during space and gravitational exposures.
He delivered several invited talks in various countries including UIC Peoria (1991), Harvard Medical School (2009), UCSD, San Diego (2016, 2018) and Graz, Austria (2019). For over a decade he has been working in Space Physiology. He has been instrumental in bringing the MoU between AIIMS New Delhi and UCSD, San Diego, USA and with NIT Jalandhar for pursuing Space Physiology Research. His group has published research in the field of space physiology involving lower body negative and positive pressure (LBNP, LBPP) and tilting protocols. He has filed a patent for a pro-gravity body gear to create gravity during microgravity exposure in 2016 and the same has been published in 2018. This pro-gravity body gear was used in earth-based experiments on microgravity. He is co-inventor in 6 more patents filing pertaining to isometric exercise, human muscular fatigue recording and space physiology. He is interested in modeling human systems.
As a recognition of his efforts to apply physiology to human health, last year he was invited to Chair the committee to finalize various Physical activity and their assessment protocols under FIT India program of GOI (2020). He has published 215 peer reviewed research papers which have over 4000 citations with an H index of 34 (Jan 2023).
https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=cvgzaiIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
Online link for the talk: