Physician-Scientist Director of the Nancy W. Knowles Strength + Endurance Lab
Shirley Ryan AbilityLab
Dr. Prakash Jayabalan is Physician Scientist Director of the Nancy W. Knowles Strength and Endurance Lab at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, USA. He received his medical degree from King’s College London and PhD from the University of Missouri in Pathobiology where is research focused on tissue engineering of cartilage and biological markers of joint disease. He is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation with a subspecialty in Sports Medicine, having completed residency training at the University of Pittsburgh (during which he was awarded the Mclean Outstanding Resident Award from the AAP and was Chair of the Resident Fellow Council) and subsequently fellowship training in Sports Medicine at Northwestern University. Since graduating fellowship in 2016, he has received multiple grants, publications, and research awards for his laboratory’s work (the Translational Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory) including the Best Paper Award from the AAP, the Scott F. Nadler and Justus Lehmann Awards from the Foundation for PM&R, Community Engagement Award from the Alliance for Research in Chicagoland Communities and Northwestern University, and the Young Investigator’s Award from the AMSSM. His lab’s work focusses on using biological markers to develop novel, individualized rehabilitation, and exercise strategies for individuals with knee osteoarthritis. Dr Jayabalan is a current recipient of a KL2 mentored career development award from the Northwestern CTSI to investigate cartilage response to stress in the healthy and diseased state, work he hopes will eventually change the way we diagnose and manage early knee osteoarthritis in the future. At the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab he has been awarded the Medical Education Innovator of the Year Award, and for the past four consecutive years, the ‘Resident Mentor of The Year’ award from the Northwestern PM&R residency program. He also serves on the inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council of his institution. In the past 3 years alone, his mentees have presented over 30 research abstracts at the AAP Annual meeting winning 3 Best Paper or Top Poster Awards. Nationally, he is currently AAP’s representative to the AMA, is a member of the AAP’s Research Committee and he recently became the Chair of the Health Care Policy and Legislative Committee of the AAPM&R. Internationally he serves on the global consensus and research task force to develop classification criteria for the sport of disability golf and to improve the sports inclusiveness. He is a proud graduate of the RMSTP program and a current PAL Program scholar. All his accomplishments were recently recognized as he was chosen as a ‘40 under 40’ Chicago area scientist.
