Dr. Silvia Blemker | Co-Founder & CSO, Sprinkbok Analytics | Teaching & Advancing Biomedical Engineering & Muscle Analytics

Dr. Silvia Blemker is a distinguished professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia and co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Springbok Analytics. Silvia discusses her fascinating journey from a curious child who loved learning about anatomy to now leading groundbreaking research at the Multi-scale Muscle Mechanophysiology Lab. Learn how her innovative AI-driven muscle analytics technology is reshaping fields ranging from sports medicine to neuromuscular diseases. Silvia shares her passion for mentorship, the rewards of pushing scientific boundaries, and the thrill of solving complex challenges. 

 

Guest links: https://www.springbokanalytics.com | http://www.uvam3lab.com

Charity supported: Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at [e-mail]. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS Host & Editor: Lindsey Dinneen Producer: Velentium Medical

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Episode 044 - Dr. Silvia Blemker

[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.

[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.

[00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives.

[00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives.

[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.

[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host, Lindsey, and today I am very excited to introduce as my guest, Sylvia Blemker. Sylvia is the Robert Thompson Distinguished Professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia. She leads the Multi-scale Muscle Mechanophysiology Lab, which develops multi-skill computational and experimental techniques to study skeletal muscle biomechanics and physiology. The lab explores a range of applications including speech disorders, vision impairments, aging, muscular dystrophies, and human performance. New projects include developing models that incorporate for sex differences in musculoskeletal structure and simulating the effects of estrogen levels on muscle regeneration. Dr. Blemker is also Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Springbok Analytics, a company commercializing image based muscle analytics AI technology for many applications from muscle diseases to sports medicine.

All right. Well, welcome. And thank you so much for being here. I'm so delighted to talk to you today, Sylvia.

[00:01:55] Dr. Silvia Blemker: Thank you. I'm excited to be here also.

[00:01:58] Lindsey Dinneen: Awesome. Well, would you mind starting off by telling us a little bit about yourself, your background, and maybe what led you to medtech?

[00:02:08] Dr. Silvia Blemker: Sure. So I am born and raised in Lawrence, Kansas, a child of two immigrants who are from Argentina. And they're both professors. So from a very early age, I was exposed to the world of academia. My dad was a mathematician. My mom was a math person also. So, math and STEM was always from the get go part of my life and I knew it would be in the future.

And when I was trying to decide what to study as an undergraduate student, I learned of this field called biomedical engineering that was somewhat of a new discipline at that point. I started college in 1993. And I just thought it sounded perfect because I was really interested in medicine. I loved anatomy. I was one of those geeks that had anatomy parts, like models. I had an ear and I had an eyeball and a heart, all these different things. I just thought anatomy was really interesting and cool.

And I always thought being a doctor of some kind would be really cool because it would mix my interest in biology and anatomy with wanting to help people, but I don't think that was the right path for me, and it also wouldn't