Cartilage Repair & Mechanics

Motivation

Traumatic events, such as ACL tears, cause damage to the articular cartilage of the knee resulting in osteoarthritis, associated with pain and loss of mechanical function. Multiple repair and recovery techniques including drugs and tissue engineered cartilage are used clinically as viable solutions to articular cartilage damage. While these techniques provide some clinical success, the underlying mechanics and function of these treatment options is not fully understood.

Current Research

Our current research is directed at investigating the following areas:

  • Structure-function relationship of tissue engineered cartilage [Collaborations: Histogenics, Corp.; Cohen Lab (Cornell)]
  • Biological consequences (mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death) of traumatic damage to articular cartilage [Collaborations: Cohen Lab (Cornell), Fortier Lab (Cornell)]
  • Mechanics at the interface of tissue engineered cartilage with native tissue [Collaborations: Cohen Lab (Cornell)]
  • Cartilage integration analysis for repaired and tissue-engineered constructs [Collaborations: Cohen Lab (Cornell), Randolph Lab (MGH)]
  • Active and passive transport of molecules into articular cartilage [Collaborations: AbbVie, Inc.]
  • Reconstruction of the bone-to-cartilage interface using microfluidic devices [Collaborations: Estroff (Cornell), Jiang Lab (MOST – NCNST)]
  • Raman analysis of cartilage structure [Collaborations: Estroff Lab (Cornell)]

Lab Members

Collaborations

AbbVie, Inc. – Chicago, IL

Cohen Lab – Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Estroff Lab – Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Fortier Lab – Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Histogenics Corp. – Waltham, MA

Jiang Lab – MOST-NCNST, Beijing, China

Randolph Lab – Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston, MA

 

tissue-engineered-cartilageConfocal imaging of human tissue engineered constructs revealed differences between 1 week and 7 week constructs, showing changes in the resistance to buckling of fibers.

 

ocgrge_m01-si01_stockphoto-03Microfluidic device for reconstruction of osteochondral interface.