Research

Research in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratories is categorized into eight broad project groups that are listed below. Follow the links to the Orthopaedic Research Laboratories to learn more about the project groups as well as individual projects within those focus areas.

The Clinical Research group conducts patient-centered orthopaedic studies, including prospective randomized clinical trials of orthopaedic implants and drug treatments; prospective and retrospective functional outcome studies; and case reports of interesting and/or uncommon clinical orthopaedic phenomena. All orthopaedic clinical studies adhere to strict human subjects protection standards and receive approval from the Medical School's Institutional Review Board before any patients are enrolled.

The Fracture Healing project group consists of research studies that investigate environmental factors that influence bone repair and regeneration including mechanical forces, tissue engineered constructs, and other methods of biological therapies for applications in clinical orthopaedic science.

The Growth and Development project group aims to understand how the development of the skeletal system and its components changes over time and adapts to altered stimuli.

The Lower Extremity Sports Research project group consists of a multi-disciplinary team of faculty, staff, and students who conduct sports-related research.

The Physical Effects on Tissues In Vivo project group investigates the adaptation response of musculoskeletal tissues when subjected to mechanical stimuli. These projects encompass short-term and long-term adaptation time periods, mechanotransduction events, and signal transduction pathways.

The Physical Effects on Tissues In Vitro project group includes studies that focus on the adaptation of both cell and tissue cultures to applied mechanical forces. These projects use a variety of methods including substrate stretching, hydrostatic pressures, and custom tissue culture mechanical systems to apply load.

The Shoulder Research project group consists of a multi-disciplinary team of faculty, staff, and students who conduct a broad range of research, from the level of gene expression to mathematical modeling of the shoulder.

The Architecture project group encompasses a large variety of research projects, dealing with the study of bone properties at multiple hierarchical levels, and determining the effects of medical devices on orthopaedic problems. The common theme among these projects is to apply engineering concepts or an engineering approach to studying bone or bone/medical device constructs. The biological specimens range from human tissue (autopsy and surgical specimens), to normal animals, to genetically altered animals, and experiments are conducted at all levels of hierarchy, ranging from the lamellar levels to the whole organ of bone.