Associate Professor
Orthopedics and Physical Rehabilitation (Medicine)
University of Massachusetts Medical School
United States of America
She is working as Associate Professor She is working as Associate Professor
Synthetic tissue grafts and smart implants guiding the repair and regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues With an aging population, the demand for synthetic tissue scaffolds assisting the repair and reconstruction of musculoskeletal tissue defects resulting from trauma, aging, cancer and metabolic diseases is \rising. Our lab is interested in 1) developing new biomaterial- and stem cell-based approaches towards bone and cartilage tissue regeneration, particularly dealing with hard-to-heal tissue defects resulting from aging, diabetes, and traumatic injuries; 2) identifying novel factors regulating stem cell renewal and skeletal tissue regeneration; 3) identifying new targets for the development of disease modifying drugs of osteoarthritis; and 4) improving the osteointegration of and reducing periprosthetic infections associated with existing orthopedic metallic implants. Many of the synthetic scaffolds we designed are programmed with unique physical properties to facilitate facile surgical delivery (injectable formulations; minimally invasive in vivo deployment), tunable & predictive in vivo degradation profiles, and spatially controlled presentation and temporally controlled release of bioactive factors for regulating stem/progenitor cell fate within the tissue niche environment.