As we begin the semester, we're highlighting Bryn Mawr's newest faculty members. The College supports faculty excellence in both research and teaching.
Assistant Professor of Biology Crystal Reynaga
As a research scholar, my interests include investigating questions that lie at the intersection of musculoskeletal physiology and movement mechanics. My research program aims to understand animal locomotion in complex environments, from the whole animal scale to the muscle level. I accomplish this by studying specialized movements in various animal models across vertebrate and invertebrate systems. My experimental approaches examine shifts in limb anatomy, the nervous system, and muscle-tendon mechanics to determine what drives changes to locomotor performance. To investigate these systems, I take an integrative approach using modern physiological and engineering tools such as electromyography, muscle imaging, biological materials testing, high-speed videography, computer vision, and 3D printing. These questions provide broader insight to understanding how limbs provide leverage in variable environments and potentially inform design parameters for synthetic systems from robots to prosthetics.
The Department of Biology is an interactive community of undergraduates, faculty, and staff who work together to better understand the nature and significance of living systems.