Professor Sarah L Astill

Profile

Professor Sarah Astill is a leading researcher in neural and behavioural control of movement across the life and health span. Her work spans fundamental mechanistic studies through to translational interventions, with particular strength in upper-limb rehabilitation and mobility in spinal cord injury, neurodevelopmental movement disorders and older adults.

Responsibilities

• Co-Lead Reimagine Ageing Interdisciplinary Research Network

Research interests

My lab integrates advanced technologies (motion analysis, surface electromyography, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and transcutaneous electrical stimulation) to understand how movements are controlled, learned and re-learnt. From this mechanistic base, we design and test novel interventions that drive neuroplasticity and enhance functional recovery, task-specific performance and physical activity across populations.

Key Themes:

• Transcutaneous Electrical Stimulation (TCES) + Task Practice
  I lead systematic investigations into the use of TCES as an adjunct to bimanual task-practice in both chronic cervical spinal cord injury and paediatric hemiplegic cerebral palsy. These mixed‐methods studies combine neurophysiological measures (e.g., TMS, sEMG, spinal stimulation), clinical assessments (e.g., GRASSP, SCIM-II) and qualitative interview data to map neural plasticity, motor function change and patient experience.

• Current and forthcoming projects aim to optimise TCES dosing, refine task-specific protocols and accelerate translation into clinical settings.

• Dance On: Community-Led Dance for Ageing Well

As PI of the Sport England-funded project “Dance On”, delivered in partnership with One Dance UK, Yorkshire Dance and DARTS, I co-create, implement and evaluate community-based dance programmes targeted at older adults (55–75 yrs) and the oldest-old (85+). Our findings demonstrate sustained increases in physical activity and wellbeing, and the programme has been shown to be cost-effective in falls prevention. The research explores not only participant outcomes but also ripple effects on artists, community assets and service access, and we are actively working with local authorities and care-home settings to scale and tailor delivery.

• Task-Specific Upper-Limb Rehabilitation in Diverse Populations
  Building on my early work in children with developmental coordination disorder, hemiplegic cerebral palsy and older adults, my group has consistently explored the neural mechanisms of bimanual reach-to-grasp tasks and how to optimise rehabilitation in impaired systems.

Academic & Clinical Translation
My translational agenda emphasises bridging from mechanistic insights to clinical implementation:

• Developing cost-effective, home-based systems (for example gait trainers) for people with spinal cord injury who may not have access to high-end clinical devices.

• Collaborating with local authorities, health services and arts organisations to embed active movement solutions (like dance) into community-based health promotion and ageing-well strategies.

• Co-designing interventions with clinical, community and industry partners to ensure scalability, accessibility and real-world impact.

Qualifications

• PhD Neuromotor Control in Children with Devlopmental Coordination Disorder
• BSc (Hons) Physiology and Sport Science
• FHEA

Student education

Education & Leadership
Since completing a BSc (Hons) in Physiology & Sport Science (First Class) at the University of Leeds in 2000 and a subsequent PhD in neuromotor control in children with movement difficulties, I have held academic positions at Southampton and Leeds. At Leeds I advanced from Lecturer to Associate Professor in Motor Control (promoted 2018) before becoming Professor. biologicalsciences.leeds.ac.uk

Within student education, I have held roles such as Director for Student Education, Programme Leader for Sport & Exercise Sciences, and Faculty Academic Lead for Student Experience and Opportunity. I teach across all levels of the Biomedicine programme, supervise BSc, MSc and MRes students, and manage the MSc Sport & Exercise Medicine Research Project module.

Research groups and institutes

• Sport and Exercise Sciences
• Neuroscience and Behaviour
• Cardiovascular and Exercise Sciences

Current postgraduate researchers

• Zhané Murrell-Smith
• Frances Gawne
• Patrick Cullen

Projects

<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1893-optimising-functional-independence-across-the-life-and-healthspan-using-neurostimulation">Optimising functional independence across the life and healthspan using neurostimulation</a></li>