Balthazaar, Shane Dr.

Shane Balthazaar completed his PhD at the International Collaboration On Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). His doctoral research focused on cardiovascular and autonomic impairments following spinal cord injury (SCI), with particular emphasis on clinically relevant changes in cardiac structure and function. He previously completed his Honours Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada) and has extensive clinical experience as a cardiac physiologist in tertiary teaching hospitals in Canada and the United Kingdom.

 

Following his PhD, Shane undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom), where he investigated cardiovascular health across clinical populations, with a focus on exercise-based rehabilitation and neuromodulatory strategies to improve cardiovascular outcomes after SCI. In parallel, he contributed to lecturing in the second year Applied Exercise Physiology course and supervised undergraduate and graduate research projects.

 

In November 2025, Shane joined the Spinal Cord Injury Center at Balgrist University Hospital as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, supported by an International Foundation for Research in Paraplegia postdoctoral fellowship. Working in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. Michèle Hubli, his current research examines whether early cardiovascular and autonomic dysfunction after acute SCI is associated with the development of neuropathic pain, with the aim of improving risk stratification and clinical management following SCI.