Connecting Pain, Mind and Movement: Insights from Knee Osteoarthritis and Neck and Low Back Pain

Dr. Soyoung Lee is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science at the University of Maryland Baltimore. She was awarded her PhD by Boston University in 2024. During her PhD, Dr. Lee integrated quantitative sensory testing, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and gait biomechanics to examine how central pain sensitization shapes cortical function and movement in people with knee osteoarthritis. Her current work focuses on assessing and preventing post-traumatic knee osteoarthritis after ACL injury. By pairing high-density EEG with an off-axis robotic platform, she studies how lower-limb injury reshapes neuromuscular control and whether patient-reported outcomes moderate rehabilitation response, supporting more personalized, evidence-informed care.

Junze Chen is a PhD Candidate at the RECOVER Injury Research Centre, The University of Queensland, under the supervision of Professor Michele Sterling and Dr Scott Farrell. His research focuses on the classification and clinical presentation of Whiplash-Associated Disorders (WAD), with particular interests in pain mechanisms, sensory processing, and chronic pain phenotyping.

Alongside his research, he works clinically as a physiotherapist at Advance Healthcare in Melbourne, Australia, a clinic delivering multidisciplinary pain management for individuals with persistent musculoskeletal pain, compensable injuries, and complex pain conditions.

His current PhD program aims to improve the classification of WAD and enhance understanding of the factors that contribute to ongoing pain and disability following injury. His broader research interests include pain assessment, chronic pain mechanisms, and translating research findings into practical clinical applications that improve patient outcomes.

Dr Rui Chang (Jeremy) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, The University of Sydney. He was awarded his PhD by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2025. During his PhD, Dr Chang integrated quantitative sensory testing, electroencephalography, and evidence synthesis to examine how insomnia influences pain processing and physical function in people with chronic pain, and to explore evidence-based strategies for managing sleep problems in this population. His current work aims to improve the assessment and management of musculoskeletal conditions by combining clinical research, evidence synthesis, and AI-enabled approaches to support more personalized and evidence-informed care.

Erin MacIntyre is a clinician-researcher in the final year of her PhD at the Persistent Pain Research Group based at the University of South Australia. Her work explores the links between pain, movement, and visuospatial perception in people with knee osteoarthritis. Her research also focuses on the development and clinical implementation of new technology (e.g., virtual reality) that exploits these links between pain and visual perception to reduce pain and improve exercise engagement. 

Dr Rodrigo Rizzo is a Medical Research Future Funding (MRFF) Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and the School of Health Sciences, University of New South Wales (UNSW). Dr Rizzo is a physiotherapist with extensive clinical experience managing people with chronic pain. 

In his PhD, he summarised the effects of interventions for low back pain and explored new treatment targets to improve the management of low back pain. Dr Rizzo's research has substantially impacted the management of low back pain. His systematic review of medicines targeting neurotrophic factors supported pharmaceutical regulatory agencies (FDA, European Medicines Agency) to reject commercialising these medicines for people with chronic pain due to limited efficacy and potentially severe adverse effects. He conducted Cochrane overviews providing accessible and high-quality summaries of treatments for low back pain to facilitate treatment decision-making. 

Dr Rizzo has conducted randomised controlled trials and undertaken process evaluations (e.g., mediation analysis and qualitative analysis) of brain-targeted interventions for chronic low back pain. He pioneered combining hypnotic suggestions with pain education for back pain management. Dr Rizzo's innovative approach has been applied in several allied health teams to manage chronic pain, including Brazil's unified health system, Prince of Wales Hospital, St. George's Hospital, and St. Vincent's Hospital in Australia. Dr Rizzo's work has informed the development and implementation of a prescribable digital health intervention in primary care funded by the MRFF 2021 Primary Health Care Digital Innovations.