Research Areas

Orthopedic Engineering

Orthopedic Engineering combines principles of tissue engineering, cell biology, and biomechanics to generate new knowledge of bone and soft tissue biology and develop novel therapies to treat musculoskeletal disease.

This program seeks to understand the mechanical and material properties of bone and soft tissues (muscle, cartilage) and to exploit biomaterial and cellular processes to mediate injury responses and promote regeneration. Computational models play a significant role in the design of and development of new experimental methods and protocols.

Primary Faculty

Lori Setton

Chair and Professor
Combines methods of engineering and biology to regulate disc and cartilage health and healing

Nathaniel Huebsch

Associate Professor
Focuses on basic & translational stem cell mechanobiology

Affiliate Faculty

Guy Genin - Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Interfaces and adhesion in physiology and nature; optical strain analysis; continuum mechanics; viscoelasticity

Farshid Guilak - Orthopaedic Surgery

biomechanics, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, osteoarthritis, synthetic biology, stem cells, mechanobiology, mechanotransduction, cell mechanics

Michael Harris - Physical Therapy

Whole Body & Joint-level Orthopaedic Biomechanics

Spencer Lake - Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Orthopedic, soft tissues, tendon/ligament, biomechanics, structure-function

Audrey McAlinden - Orthopaedic Surgery

microRNAs, RNA nanotherapeutics, skeletal biology, heterotopic ossification, osteoarthritis, bone fracture

Gretchen Meyer - Physical Therapy

Skeletal Muscle Physiology, Adipose Signaling, Regeneration, Injury

W. Zachary Ray, MD - Neurosurgery

neuroprosthetics, resorbable electronics, nerve regeneration, spinal cord injury

Brenton Pennicooke - Neurological Surgery

machine learning, artificial intelligence, patient-user interface, predictive analytics, causal inference, patient outcomes, risk stratification, data science, applied mathematics, spine surgery, spine disease

Erica Scheller - Internal Medicine - Bone & Mineral Diseases

diabetes, fracture risk, advanced imaging, neurobiology, metabolic disease, bone regeneration, biosensors

Jie Shen - Orthopaedic Surgery

osteoarthritis, fracture nonunion, epigenetics, DNA methylation, cellular metabolism, lipid metabolism, stem cell, chondrocyte

Matthew Silva - Orthopaedic Surgery

Skeletal biomechanics and mechanobiology; bone strength; osteoporosis; skeletal imaging

Simon Tang - Orthopaedic Surgery

Disc Degeneration; Low back pain; osteoporosis and fragility