Andrew Spence
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Andrew Spence is a Lecturer in Biomechanics. His dedicated laboratory web page is at www.spencelab.com
News: new BBSRC grant awarded! Andrew has been awarded a 3-year BBSRC grant entitled “Foundations of Neuromechanical Systems Biology.” With co-investigators Prof. John Hutchinson and Prof. Dominic Wells, this project will use a technique from the frontier of molecular genetics, optogenetics, to tease apart the contributions of the nervous and mechanical systems to fast legged locomotion. Further details about the project are available here.
Biography
After finishing his undergraduate degree in physics at the University of California at Berkeley in 1997, he moved to Ithaca, New York, to do a PhD at Cornell University in Applied and Engineering Physics. Dr Spence’s thesis work was on microfabricated devices for biomedical engineering with Prof. Mike Isaacson, but at Cornell he became enthralled with the worlds of neurobiology and neuroethology through working in the lab of Prof. Ron Hoy.
Prior to coming the RVC, he was a postdoctorate fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, first studying antennal mechanoreception with Prof. Eileen Hebets, and then the neuromechanics of locomotion in the PolyPEDAL Laboratory with Prof. Bob Full, where the appeal of neuroethology turned into an addiction when he discovered the field of biomechanics. Since coming to the RVC, he has discovered that vertebrates are pretty cool after all, and that their macroevolution turns out to have been pretty darn interesting.
Research
The goal of Andrew’s research program is to discover how the neural, muscular, and skeletal components of an organism work together to produce locomotion. This research is of fundamental importance in medicine (how can we rehabilitate stroke patients, patients with neurological disease, or amputees?), veterinary science (how do we treat lameness, and create safe environments for animals?), engineering (how do we build more agile robots?), and basic biology (how has evolution shaped animal movement?). He takes an integrative approach that fuses experiments, novel microinstrumentation, and mathematical and physical (robot) models.
His past work has examined the control of locomotion on compliant substrates (cockroaches with backpacks running over stretched dental dams!), recovery of running animals from inertial and physiological perturbation (with Shai Revzen and Simon Sponberg), and the dependence of muscle function on behavioral context (with Simon Sponberg). Crucial to this work was the utilization of MEMs inertial sensors and the development of custom microfabricated devices. These “microbackpacks” have broken new ground, and are being used to study freely behaving insects in the laboratory, gliding mammals in the wild, and many parts of a galloping horse at the same time.
In April 2010 he was awarded an EPSRC grant entitled Bioinspired Control Architectures for Multilegged Locomotion. This exciting new grant is examining how dogs adjust for surfaces of different stiffness, and programing observations of the animal into the robot XRL (X-RHex Lite), which then tests our hypothesized control architectures. Dr. Simon Wilshin has come on board as the postdoc on this project, and the work is being carried on in collaboration with Dr. Clark Haynes, and Prof. Daniel Koditschek, of the University of Pennsylvannia. KodLab.
Teaching
I thoroughly enjoy teaching, mentoring, and learning from students at all stages of their careers. I'm particularly interested in inquiry based learning, based on principles from the Perry and Nelson framework of cognitive development. I believe that confronting students with the difficulty of making discoveries in a laboratory setting is an avid stimulator of mental growth, and is one of the best ways to promote higher level thinking.
Selected Publications
Publications
| 2012 |
Andrew Spence and John R. Hutchinson. A Growing Size Synthesis. Current Biology (2012).
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| 2012 |
Andrew Spence, Andrew Thurman, Michael Maher, and Alan Wilson. Speed, pace, and drafting in Thoroughbred horse racing. Biology Letters (2012).
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| 2012 |
Zoe Self, Andrew Spence, and Alan Wilson. Racehorse speed supports a power constraint to incline running and a force constraint to decline running. Journal of Applied Physiology (2012) Under review.
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| 2011 |
Greg Byrnes and A. J. Spence. Ecological and biomechanical insights into the evolution of gliding in mammals. Integrative and Comparative Biology (2011) http://dx.doi. org/10.1093/icb/icr069
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| 2011 |
Greg Byrnes, Thomas Libby, Norman, T.-L. Lim, and A.J. Spence. Gliding saves time but not energy in Malayan Colugos. Journal of Experimental Biology 214, p 2690-2696.. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.052993
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| 2011 |
Simon Sponberg, Andrew J. Spence, Chris H. Mullens, & Robert J. Full. A single muscles multifunctional control potential of body dynamics for postural control and running Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B 366 (2011) no. 1570 p. 1592-1605. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0367
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| 2011 |
G. Byrnes, N. T-L. Lim, C. Yeong, and A.J. Spence. Sex differences in the locomotor behavior and ecology of a gliding mammal (Galeopterus variegatus) determined from animal-borne inertial sensors. Journal of Mammology 92 no. 2, (2011) p 444-451. http://dx.doi.org/10.1644/10-MAMM-A-048.1
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| 2010 |
A.J. Spence, S. Revzen, J. Seipel, C. Mullens, and R.J. Full. Insects running on elastic surfaces. Journal of Experimental Biology 213 (2010) p 1907-1920. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.042515 |
| 2010 |
K.J. Parsons, A.J. Spence, R. Morgan, J.A. Thompson, and A.M. Wilson. High speed kinematics of foot contact in elite galloping horses in training. Equine Veterinary Journal. In press. |
| 2010 |
G. Byrnes, N. T-L. Lim, C. Yeong, and A.J. Spence. Sex diff erences in the locomotor behavior and ecology of a gliding mammal (Galeopterus variegatus) determined from animal-borne inertial sensors. Journal of Mammology. In press. |
| 2010 |
R.H. Willemart, R.D. Santer, A.J. Spence, E.A. Hebets. A sticky situation: Solifugids (Arachnida, Solifugae) use adhesive organs on their pedipalps for prey capture. Journal of Ethology. In press. |
| 2009 |
T. Pfau, A. Spence, S. Starke, M. Ferrari, and A. Wilson. Modern Riding Style Improves Horse Racing Times. Science 325 (2009) p. 289. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1174605 |
| 2009 |
A.J. Spence. Scaling in Biology. Current Biology 19(2) (2009), R57-R61. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2008.10.042 |
| 2008 |
G. Byrnes, N.T.L. Lim, and A.J. Spence. Take-off and landing kinetics of free-ranging Malayan colugos (Galeopterus variegatus). Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2008). http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.1684. |
| 2008 |
A.J. Spence, H. Tan and A.M. Wilson. Accuracy of the TurfTrax Racing Data System for determination of equine speed and position. Equine Veterinary Journal, 40, (2008) 680-683. http://dx.doi.org/10.2746/042516408X330338. |
| 2007 |
A.J. Spence, K.B. Neeves, D. Murphy, S. Sponberg, B.R. Land, R.R. Hoy, and M.S. Isaacson, Flexible multielectrodes can resolve multiple muscles in an insect appendage. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 159 (2007), 116-124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneumeth.2006.07.002. |
| 2006 |
A.J. Spence and E.A. Hebets, Anatomy and physiology of giant neurons in the antenniform leg of the amblypygid Phrynus marginemaculatus. Journal of Arachnology 34 (2006), 566-577. http://www.americanarachnology.org/JoA_free/JoA_v34_n3/JoA_v34-3-566.pdf. |
| 2005 |
L. Spataro, J. Dilgen, S. Retterer, A.J. Spence, M. Isaacson, J.N. Turner, W. Shain. Dexamethasone treatment reduces astroglia responses to inserted neuroprosthetic devices in rat neocortex. Experimental Neurology 194 (2005), 289-300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expneurol.2004.08.037. |
| 2004 |
C.D. James, A.J. Spence, N. Dowell, R.J. Hussein, K. Smith, H.G. Craighead, M.S. Isaacson, W. Shain, J. Turner. Extracellular Recordings from Constructed Neuronal Networks using Planar Microelectrode Arrays. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 51 (2004), 1640-1648. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2004.827252. |
| 2004 |
S.T. Retterer, K.L. Smith, C.S. Bjornsson, K.B. Neeves, A.J. Spence, J.N. Turner, W. Shain, and M.S. Isaacson. Model neural prostheses with Integrated Microfluidics: A Potential Intervention Strategy for Controlling Reactive Cell and Tissue Responses. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 51 (2004), 2063-2073. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TBME.2004.834288. |
| 2004 |
A.P. Russo, S.T. Retterer, A.J. Spence, M.S. Isaacson, L.A. Lepak, M.G. Spencer, D.L. Martin, R. MacColl, J.N. Turner. Direct Casting of Polymeric Membranes into Microfluidic Devices. Separation Science and Technology 39 (2004), 2515-2530. http://dx.doi.org/10.1081/SS-200026706. |
| 2003 |
A.J. Spence, R.R. Hoy, M. S. Isaacson. A micromachined silicon multielectrode for multiunit recording. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 126 (2003), 119-126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0270(03)00075-X. |
| 2003 |
D.H. Szarowski, M.D. Andersen, S. Retterer, A.J. Spence, M. Isaacson, H.G. Craighead, J.N. Turner, W. Shain. Brain responses to micro-machined silicon devices. Brain Research 983 (2003), 23-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0006-8993(03)03023-3. |
| 2003 |
A. Surlykke, J.E. Yack, A.J. Spence, I. Hasenfuss. Hearing in hooktip moths (Drepanidae: Lepidoptera). Journal of Experimental Biology 206 (2003), 2653-2663. http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.00469. |
| 2002 |
A.P. Russo, D. Apoga, N. Dowell, W. Shain, A. Turner, H. Craighead, A.J. Spence, S.T. Retterer, M.S. Isaacson, H.C. Hoch, J.N. Turner. Microfabricated Plastic Devices from Silicon Using Soft Intermediates. Biomedical Microdevices 4 (2002), 277-283. http://dx.doi.org/10.1081/SS-200026706 |
Outreach Activities
On August 16-18, 2011, we had a public demonstration of our XRL six legged robot at the Antenna Gallery at the Science Museum in London. XRL is the latest and greatest of the RHex series of ground-breaking legged robots. Our collaborators in the Kod*Lab at Penn (see link above in Research) have done amazing work to build us an XRL robot, which we are using to test hypotheses about how animals like dogs and cockroaches handle rough terrain.