Featured Testimonial About Creighton University
At Creighton, I’ve seen firsthand how research helps us better understand how to care for the whole person and produce the best outcomes for everyone.
New alumna: Liana Chinen, BS’25
Major: Biology, College of Arts and Sciences
From: Honolulu, Hawaii
2025-2026: First-year medical student at the University of Hawaii. “I aspire to be a physician who is skilled, humble and compassionate.”
Activities while at Creighton: Research Assistant at Boys Town’s Institute for Human Neuroscience, caregiver at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, Alzheimer’s Buddies Club volunteer, Academic Success tutor, Student Senate, Hawaii Club.
Mentors: Max Kurz, PhD, School of Pharmacy and Health Professions, research scientist and director of Boys Town’s Physiology of Walking & Engineering Rehabilitation (PoWER) Laboratory; and Creighton alumna Morgan Busboom, BS’15, DPT’20, PhD.
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By Micah Mertes
Before her freshman year, Liana Chinen didn’t even know about research as a potential path. Creighton paved the way to that discovery and many more.
What drove her to research was the same thing that inspired her to pursue a health sciences profession: a desire to help others. Whatever projects she assisted or led, she wanted to be working toward outcomes that benefit real patients and translate to real-world care.
Chinen found an ideal fit in the PoWER (Physiology of Walking & Engineering Rehabilitation) Lab at Boys Town’s Institute for Human Neuroscience, where she started as a summer intern before coming on as a research assistant for the remainder of her time at Creighton.
Led by SPAHP faculty partner Max Kurz, PhD, the PoWER Lab focuses primarily on how people process and attend to sensory information, product motor actions and learn new motor skills. The research aims to develop innovative, rehabilitative care for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Chinen, who had previously worked as a certified nursing assistant, cared for a number of individuals with mobility challenges, and the prospect of developing far-ranging improvements in patient care proved irresistible.
At the PoWER Lab, Chinen focused her research on individuals with cerebral palsy. She primarily sought to answer one question: Why do some people with cerebral palsy respond to standard physical therapy rehabilitation techniques and others do not?
To try to answer this question, Chinen, Kurz and physical therapist and Creighton alumna Morgan Busboom, BS’15, DPT’20, PhD, invited patients with cerebral palsy to the PoWER Lab. The patients received an MEG (magnetoencephalography), a brain imaging technique that tracks neural activity.
“And in the process,” Chinen said, “we found that between patients who responded to certain physical therapy and those who didn’t, there was a difference in the change of somatosensory cortical activity in response to electrical stimulation.”
Basically, the part of the brain that processes sensory information from the body was working differently for some people, requiring alternative techniques that stress different sensory systems. Other methods needed to be explored.
Chinen presented her PoWER Lab project at the BIG EAST Research Symposium in New York City this year. During her time at Creighton, she also conducted research on patients with Down syndrome to investigate early brain changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
The ultimate goal, she said, is for the findings of her research to begin treating real people in real clinical settings as soon as possible.
“At Creighton, I’ve seen firsthand how research helps us better understand how to care for the whole person and produce the best outcomes for everyone."
Though it was a focal point, research wasn't the only highlight of her Creighton education. The University was already part of the family before she attended. Two of her older siblings (and their eventual spouses) also went to Creighton, graduating from the pharmacy program. "Creighton felt like home even before it became my home," Chinen said.
She remained connected to her history and culture through Creighton's Hawaii Club, dancing at the club's luau events. Opportunities like these allowed her to forge a comprehensive and deeply fulfilling experience at Creighton, she said, where all social, academic, professional and personal needs are met.
“Creighton has taught me many things, but something I will always keep with me is the importance of community. I’m so grateful to those who gave me the opportunity to receive this education and join this special community. I will carry it with me wherever I go.”
