Stephen Kemp, Ph.D.

Stephen Kemp, Ph.D., completed his Honors Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto. Dr. Kemp completed his Ph.D. at the University of Calgary, under the mentorship of Dr. Rajiv Midha. His research focused on the anatomical, sensorimotor, and functional evaluation of peripheral nerve regeneration through bio-engineered conduits in rats. During this tenure, Dr. Kemp became a member of numerous scientific societies, including the Society for Neuroscience, Canadian Society for Neuroscience, and the American Society for Peripheral Nerve. Following his tenure in Calgary, Dr. Kemp accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children with Drs. Gregory Borschel and Tessa Gordon. Here, he continued to investigate treatment of nerve injuries, and expanded his research to focus on treatment of neonatal nerve injuries. He then completed a second postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto working under Drs. Michael Salter and Beverley Orser. 

Dr. Kemp is currently the Director of the Neuromuscular Lab at the University of Michigan. The primary goal of his laboratory is to understand and investigate mechanisms of peripheral nerve regeneration following nerve injury and repair. The core program of the lab focuses on utilizing peripheral nerves to restore motor and sensory control to both prosthetic and exoskeleton devices. His lab is also interested in chronic pain pathways following nerve injury. In addition, we investigate novel paradigms concerning neuroplasticity and how synaptic transmission in the central nervous system is regulated by biochemical processes within neurons and by glial-neuronal interactions. As an early stage investigator, Dr. Kemp has been the Principal or Co-Investigator on 11 externally funded grants totaling over $6.9 million dollars in funding. He has published 37 peer-reviewed journal articles that have a cumulative citation count of 1243, and a current h-index of 21. Dr. Kemp currently holds grants from NIH, DoD, Plastic Surgery Foundation, and the American Foundation for Surgery of the Hand.