Dr Mandy S Plumb

BSc (Hons), PhD

Senior Lecturer Osteopathy: Research Lead

Key Duties and Responsibilities

I took up the position of Senior Lecturer in Osteopathy: Research Lead at Oxford Brookes University in September 2010. My primary roles are to:-

Lead on the development of a portfolio of research in osteopathy, in collaboration with researchers both within and external to the School and University
Develop a personal programme of research which contributes to the portfolio of research in osteopathy in the School
Represent the School to the relevant research organisations, including the National Centre for Osteopathy Research
Lead on the organisation of dissertations for students undertaking the BOst and MOst degrees and provide advice and support to their supervisors
Participate in School and University quality processes e.g. annual review, approval processes, professional body reviews and commissioner requirements.
Contribute to the teaching and assessment of the programmes within the Osteopathy portfolio

Academic Background

I graduated from the University of Wales, Bangor with a BSc Honours degree in Sports Science in 2000. I then joined the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Aberdeen and pursued my PhD in Medicine observing Mechanical & Metabolic Factors in Osteoarthritis and completed in 2005.

PhD Medicine, Mechanical & Metabolic Factors in Osteoarthritis, University of Aberdeen
BSc (Hons), Sports Science, University of Wales, Bangor
BSc (Hons), Environmental Biology, Anglia Polytechnic University
GI Biol Part 1, Environmental Biology, Anglia Polytechnic University
BTEC HNC in Applied Biology, CCAT

Lecturer: Sport and Exercise Lecturer, The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen
Research Fellow, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Aberdeen
Research Fellow, School of Psychology and Department of Child Health, University of Aberdeen
Research Assistant, Plant Pathology, Plant Breeding International, Cambridge

Teaching Experience and Curriculum Development

Module leader for BSc/BOst and MOst Osteopathy dissertations
Module Leader for BSc/BOst Research Methods
Previously at RGU module leader in Body Composition and Anthropometry, Research Project, Exercise Consultation, Prescription and Programming, Enhancement of Performance, Exercise Physiology, Growth and Development and Placement Coordinator
Developed and led undergraduate module Motor Control and Learning and postgraduate modules in Applied Exercise Physiology and Applied Anthropometry and Body Composition

Current Research Interests

I am an established researcher within the School of Health and Social Care, with varied research interests which centre on the role of mechanical, nutritional, and physiological factors in musculoskeletal health and disease. My main areas of interest are in osteoarthritis, obesity, fat content of bone, MRI investigating spinal posture and load carriage, motor control and co-ordination in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.

My research to date has focused on disturbances in joint homeostasis at the cellular level to a more systems based approach, observing children with movement problems.

My two main research areas are:-

Motor control and co-ordination in children with neuro-developmental disorders
Mechanical and chemokine factors in osteoarthritis

Motor Control and Co-ordination

My main research interest is in motor control and co-ordination in children with Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD). I have identified two functional activities, sit-to-stand and gait analysis, that are often severely impacted in children with DCD and by comprehensive measurement it will enable me to explore their potential as suitable outcome measures. At present I am quantifying performance on these movement tasks using state-of-the art equipment possessed within our research laboratories. This equipment allows me to measure behaviour quantitatively, from temporal parameters, muscle activity through to joint motion and from this the overall movement strategy for each individual can be described. These measures will allow me to discover what specific areas of the functional activities are causing problems to the individual or the group of individuals.

Following on from these functional activities I want to determine the impact of a 12-week exercise intervention program, focusing on core strength, on the movement patterns in children with and without DCD. From a therapeutic perspective an understanding of the adaptations children with DCD use during gait and sit-to-stand will help provide an overall theoretical basis for developing physical therapy treatments to increase co-ordination and control by improving core stability. So this project may indicate this type of therapy has the potential to treat DCD over the long term, thus improving children's ability to participate in exercise and sport. http://psych.brookes.ac.uk/dcd/index.asp

I am also keen to examine the nature of perceptual-motor performance across different age groups and in individuals with and without various neurodevelopmental disorders, including DCD.

Upper limb kinematics during reach-to-grasp in children with developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD)
Static and dynamic balance in children with DCD during functional tasks
Planning and control of movements in children with and without Developmental Co-ordination Disorder

Osteoarthritis

My main research has been investigating the role of mechanical and chemokine factors in osteoarthritis (OA) and how they interact in the regulation of homeostasis in articular cartilage and how these can be modulated by nutritional factors, such as fatty acids.

The focus of my research is centred on the question - Is osteoarthritis a systemic musculoskeletal disorder and are there common mechanisms underlying the disease process that can produce the changes observed in bone, muscle and soft connective tissues as well as cartilage?

This involves all levels within the body from cells, their gene expression and matrix forming capabilities, through the tissues they produce, to whole joints and the mechanical loading of these joints. Within this context the effects of disease and ageing can be examined.

My studies have focused on the response of elderly human articular cartilage explants to static, cyclic or absence of mechanical load, with or without the addition of the maintenance factor IGF-1. The studies have revealed that elderly human articular cartilage does not behave in the same way as young animal tissue, with cyclic and static loading both causing an inhibition in matrix biosynthesis. In addition, cyclic mechanical load appears to block the effects of IGF-1 in elderly human tissue, in contrast to bovine tissue in which the effects were additive.

Further studies have demonstrated:-

Osteoarthritic bone was found to have double the fat content of osteoporotic bone and, within the fatty acid profile, arachidonic acid was present at twice the concentration
Pilot gene array revealed factors previously unidentified (FGF-18), which may be crucial to the mechanotransduction process in chondrocytes

So far my research has demonstrated that mechanical and chemokine factors interact in ways different to those found in animal cartilage. The role of fatty acids in mature human cartilage requires further investigation, but mechanically stimulated transcription of genes for anabolic factors does not appear to result in increased matrix synthesis.

I am currently establishing further links with the University of Western Australia (UWA) with the intention of forming a collaborative research programme in the future. I was awarded a International Exchange Grant from The Royal Society of Edinburgh too spend 1-month over at UWA (9^th August – 7^th September 2010) to learn about computer modelling methods applied to EMG-driven neuromuscular biomechanics of human motion. The work includes three-dimensional motion analysis data collection, motion analysis computer modelling methods, and neuromuscular modelling methods to estimate articular loading in the human knee joint. Combining my expertise and those of UWA will permit the creation of new integrated multi-disciplinary research to understand the mechanobiology of knee joint osteoarthritis, and osteoarthritis in general. This has also led to further discussion on developing a more complex model of the hip.

Professional Activities

Elected Committee member (2008 – 2012) British Society of Matrix Biology (BSMB)
BSMB Conference organiser Oxford 2012
BSMB Bursary Award Coordinator
Professional member of The British Association of Sports and Exercise Sciences (BASES)
BASES accreditation in Interdisciplinary research
GP Exercise Referral Programme Consultant (Wright Foundation)
ISAK Level 3 Anthropometrist.

Reviewer for the following journals:

Arthritis Research and Therapy, Journal of Sports Science, Journal of Anatomy, Human Movement Science, Neuropsychologia and Cortex

Postgraduate Research

Mellissa Prunty – Second supervisor (funded by Oxford Brookes, doctoral training programme) ‘The Mechanisms of Motor Control and Co-ordination in Children with Developmental Co-ordination Disorder’.

Anastasia Pavlova – Supervisory team (PhD Studentship funded by Roemex, University of Aberdeen) ‘The innate shape of the lumbar spine and its relationship with low back pain’.

Currently supervising 7 MOst which include primary research on:-

Low back pain (LBP) in golfer
Posture related LBP in dentists
Prescribing barefoot running as a therapeutic approach to lower limb injuries in runners
Forward shoulder posture and respiratory disease in 50-70 yr olds
Plantar pressure in quiet standing and squat in 5-10 yr and correlation to range of dorsiflexion in talocrural joint

Other Research Interests

Spinal posture and the dynamics of load and lifting using Vicon and PMRI
Developing and validating a low back model to assess the spine using Vicon
Anthropometric estimation of adipose tissue area using an elliptical model, using pMRI as a criterion method
Prediction of total torso adiposity from single slice pMRI, 3D shape and anthropometry

Consultancy

I have been involved in consultancy work with Mentholatum since September 2008 providing basic training on structure and function of joints, common joint diseases and injuries, joint pain, review of supplements and efficacy. I have also reviewed data relating to three new products aimed at relieving joint pain and inflammation (topical gel, topical patch and oral supplement), which were launched in 2009 and advised on additional studies that need to be conducted. From this work I have been awarded £13,200 and £15,400 and evaluation and confirmation of the anti-inflammatory activity of these three nutraceutical compounds on human chondrocyte cultures is now complete.

Bibliography

Research results are published in 10 peer-reviewed papers. Work has also been presented at conferences and seminars in the UK and abroad. I was also invited to deliver a keynote lecture at a European Symposium on osteoarthritis and joint health in animals.

Recent publications

Van Swieten, L.M., Van Bergen, E., Williams, J.H.G., Plumb M.S., Wilson A.D., Kent, S.W., Mon-Williams, M. A test of motor (not executive) planning in developmental co-ordination disorder and autism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. 2010, 36 (2): 493-499.

Todd, J., Mills, C., Wilson, A.D., Plumb, M.S., & Mon-Williams, M. (2009). Slow motor responses to visual stimuli of low salience in autism. Journal of Motor Behaviour. 2009, 41 (5): 419-426.

Kent, S., Wilson, A.D., Plumb, M.S., Williams, J.H.G., & Mon-Williams, M. Immediate movement history influences reach-to-grasp action selection in children and adults. Journal of Motor Behaviour. 2009, 41 (1): 10-15.

Plumb, M.S., Wilson, A.D., Mulroue, A., Brockman, A., Williams, J.H.G. & Mon-Williams, M. On-line corrections in children with & without Developmental Co-ordination Disorder. Human Movement Science. 2008, 27 (5): 695-704.

Pettit, L., Charles, J., Wilson, A.D., Plumb, M.S., Brockman, A., Williams, J.H.G. & Mon-Williams, M. 2008. Constrained action selection in children with developmental coordination disorder. Human Movement Science. 2008, 27 (2): 286-295.

Munro, H., Plumb, M.S., Williams, J.H.G., Mon-Williams, M. The effect of distance on reaction time in aiming movements. Experimental Brain Research, 2007, 183 (2): 249-257.

Plumb, M.S., Treon, K. & Aspden, R. M. Competing regulation of matrix biosynthesis by mechanical & IGF-1 signalling in elderly human articular cartilage in vitro. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, General Subjects, 2006, 1760: 762-767.

Plumb, M.S. & Aspden, R.M. Lipids & OA in human joints. Proceedings of Hill’s European Symposium on Osteoarthritis and Joint Health (p 26-31), 2005.

Plumb, M.S.& Aspden, R.M. The response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical stimulus in vitro. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2005, 13: 1084 – 1091.

Plumb, M.S.& Aspden, R.M. High fat content of bone in OA. Lipids in Health & Disease, 2004, 3:12.

Grants

Grant income to date totals approximately £230,000

2010: Wellcome Trust Biomedical Vacation Scholarship for Rhona Gordon – Reach-to-Grasp in Children with and without Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (£1,400), June – August 2010

2010: Robert Gordon University Research Institute Grant (£5,000) Developing a Low Back Pain model to assess the spine using Vicon, June – August 2010

2010: Royal Society of Edinburgh International Exchange Programme: Linking the mechanics in gait with the cell/molecular biology cartilage-bone unit in normal subjects and subjects undergoing partial menisectomy (£3,000), School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, University of Western Australia, August – September 2010

2010: Mentholatum Consultancy. Part 1 Stage II: Anti-inflammatory activity of Bionovex on human chondrocytes (£15,400), October 2009 – June 2010

2010: NHS Grampian Endowments. Gene Expression in Elderly Human Cartilage: Effects of Loading and Obesity (£8,700), April 2010 – March 2011.

2009: Carnegie Trust Vacation Studentship for Gordon Esslemont (£780), July 2009 – August 2009

2009: Wellcome Trust Biomedical Vacation Scholarship for Anastasia Pavlova (£1,400), June – August 2009

2009: Mentholatum Consultancy. Part 1 Stage I: Anti-inflammatory activity of Bionovex on human chondrocytes (£13,200), January 2009 – June 2009

2008: Carnegie Trust Vacation Studentship for Rhonda Sandison (£780), August 2008 – September 2008.

2008: NHS Grampian Endowments. Spinal Posture and the Dynamics of load and lifting (£11,770), April 2008 – March 2009.

2007: Action Medical Research Project Grant, joint PI with Professor Richard Aspden: Mechanical factors in osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. (£158,875), April 2008 – March 2011)

2006: Welcome Vacation Scholarship for Vera Elders (£1,360)

2004: Tenovus-Scotland Grant. Investigating the response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical loading using gene expression analysis (£9,940)

Awards

2010: BASES International Travel Bursary (£500) to attend and present at 6^th World Conference on Biomechanics, Singapore, 1^st – 6^th August 2010

2010: UK SET Travel Bursary (£500) to attend and present at 6^th World Conference on Biomechanics, Singapore, 1^st – 6^th August 2010

2008: British Academy Overseas Conference Travel Grant (£900)

2006: British Academy Overseas Conference Travel Grant (£800)

2006: Brain Journal Research Travel Fellowship Grant (£650)

2006: University of Aberdeen, School of Psychology Research Support Grant (£500)

2006: University of Aberdeen, Staff Development Grant (£625)

2006: International Meeting for Autism Research Travel Bursary ($500)

2005: University of Aberdeen, Principals Small Grant (£350)

2005: University of Aberdeen, Bone & Musculoskeletal Theme Grant (£500)

2003: University of Aberdeen, Principals Small Grant (£550)

2002: BASES & BASEM Scottish Meeting, Best Oral Presentation (£100)