Isn’t learning something new enough? A path into comparative biomechanics
9/29/2026 10:50 am
How do you find your way to comparative biomechanics? Dr. Kari Taylor-Burt, a professor of Biology at Mount St. Mary’s University studying muscle physiology and comparative biomechanics, recently sat down with us to share her path into this field. Her research focuses on understanding the muscle physiology – specifically of the obliquely striated muscle – of a unique organism, the bloodworm. Her career braids two of her passions together: science and teaching science.
Her path did not initially start out in comparative biomechanics though, as she had what she describes as a “romanticized” idea of what her future should look like. She began her undergraduate degree targeting medical school. To bolster her resume, she ended up working with Dr. Joe Thompson at Franklin and Marshall College, her first comparative biomechanics research lab. This sparked her initial curiosity about other organisms and for asking questions. While she wasn’t yet ready to change her focus from entering the medical field, this research experience was the first step towards where she is today.
A pivotal moment that helped her choose her next step was a conversation with her peer. "I think my research would have to be in medicine so that I could be sure that I am helping people because otherwise what are we doing?" Her peer’s response, “Isn’t learning something new enough?”, created a paradigm shift for Kari, allowing her to realize how her views had boxed her into a corner where she struggled to let go of the superhero idea behind a medical career. Her peer helped her realize that expanding human knowledge is worthwhile even when a direct outcome or application is not known. This ultimately led her to change her path from medicine to research.
Her love for cross-disciplinary research led her to pursue a biomechanics degree at Dr. Kiisa Nishikawa’s lab at Northern Arizona University. Her master’s research blended her interests in muscle research and questions about muscle types while maintaining clear translational applications. During her time in Dr. Nishikawa’s lab, she worked on investigating muscular dystrophy in a mouse model. This led her to realize that she was interested in the fundamentals of how the mouse muscle worked and how changes in the muscle affected the mouse's behavior. It fine-tuned her interests towards the integration from tissue to organism rather than exclusively human application.
With this newfound research focus, she then pursued a PhD at Harvard University with Dr. Andrew Biewener studying how ducks use certain muscles to perform different behaviors in different environments. This experience blended the main components of comparative biomechanics: integration, organismal, and inter-species, cementing her interest and focus in the comparative biomechanics field.
Confident in her future in comparative biomechanics, she returned to where everything started, pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Joe Thompson’s lab. She transitioned to looking at bloodworms, which has remained as her current research focus. Her path, although non-linear, had steps that brought new perspectives and brought her closer to her true interests and passion.
Her diverse experiences provided an advantage within comparative biomechanics and helped her gain a broad perspective, making her more creative in designing studies and determining technical approaches. With each step building on the other, she developed a more complete understanding of what is possible within muscles, providing a good foundation for muscle biomechanics exploration.
Comparative biomechanics has been a field that can often lie in the shadows, but this essential basic science is necessary to explore fundamental questions that are the basis for the applied work. Research is an opportunity to ask and investigate questions that have never been answered before and this field centers around gaining more knowledge that can help us gain a deeper understanding of the world we live in.
Authors
Kari Taylor-Burt, PhD (Assistant Professor at Mount Saint Mary's University)
Amulya Kadaba, MS (Research Assistant at Integrative Movement Sciences Institute)
