Ashraf S. Gorgey, MPT, PhD, FACSM, FACRM

Director of Spinal Cord Injury Research
Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center
Richmond, Virginia

Ashraf S. Gorgey, MPT, PhD, FACSM is currently the Director of Spinal Cord Injury Research at Hunter Holmes McGuire at VA Medical Center and Associate Professor at Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Virginia Commonwealth University. He has a bachelor and master degrees in physical therapy. He acquired his PhD in exercise physiology in 2005 with special emphasis on electrical stimulation, muscle activation and fatigue from the University of Georgia. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan with special focus on studying the adaptations in body composition and metabolic profile after SCI. His research background is in Rehabilitation and Exercise Physiology with special interest in individuals with SCI. His research work has focused on investigating rehabilitation strategies that could improve the quality of life in individuals with SCI and minimize the SCI health related secondary complications. Dr. Gorgey is primarily interested in applications of electrical stimulation and the capability of utilizing exercise intervention to evoke skeletal muscle hypertrophy, favorable body composition and metabolic profiles in persons with chronic SCI. He is also interested in understanding the cellular and molecular adaptations to unloading and hypertrophy. Dr. Gorgey has received several VA-RRD awards to study the effects of electrical stimulation and testosterone replacement therapy interventions on parameters of physical activity in persons with SCI including body composition, metabolic profile and mitochondrial health. Most recently, he is interest in applications of exoskeleton with and without the use of neuromodulation techniques similar to epidural stimulation and trans-spinal stimulation.
His research has received a national recognition by different organizations, including the Department of Veteran Affairs and Department of Defense. Dr. Gorgey has published close to 110 peer-reviewed articles and presented nationally as well as internationally in different scientific meetings.

Presentation(s):

• Technological Advancements in the Rehabilitation After Spinal Cord Injury (825086)

  Wednesday, October 21, 2020
  2:15 PM – 3:30 PM EST

• Lifestyle Approaches to Improve Secondary Health Complications in Individuals with SCI (848161)

  Thursday, October 22, 2020
  4:45 PM – 6:00 PM EST

• Mitochondrial Health After Spinal Cord Injury: Measuring Techniques and Role of Exercise (824581)

  Friday, October 23, 2020
  2:00 PM – 3:15 PM EST