July 2013
Welcome to...New Orthopaedic Resident Vishal Saxena!
June 2013
Congratulations to...Rob Mauck and Jason Burdick for the article in Penn News Today about their research in growing new cartilage!
Penn Research Shows Way to Improve Stem Cells' Cartilage Formation
Woojin Han for his paper titled "Macro to micro-scale strain transfer in fibrous tissues is heterogeneous and tissue specific" accepted for publication in The Biophysical Journal
Good-bye to...
Orthopaedic Resident Andrew Milby and Research Engineer Deb Gorth
May 2013
Congratulations to...Mara Schenker, Rob Mauck, Dr. Jaimo Ahn and Dr. Samir Mehta for their paper titled "Pathogenesis and Prevention of Post-Traumatic Arthritis after Intra-Articular Fractures" accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
April 2013
Congratulations to...Minwook Kim for winning the 2013 Force and Motion Scholarship!
Joe Chiaro and Lachlan Smith for their paper titled "Postnatal progression of bone disease in the cervical spines of mucopolysaccharidosis I dogs" accepted for publication in Bone!
Deb Gorth for her acceptance to Jefferson Medical College!
Matt Fisher for the arrival of Lily, born April 25th!
March 2013
Congratulations to...John Martin for his paper titled "Needle Puncture Injury Causes Acute and Long-Term Mechanical Deficiency in a Mouse Model of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration" accepted for publication in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research!
Sylvia Qu for winning second place at the Veterinary Student Research Day for her presentation titled "Improved Meniscus Integration via Controlled Degradation of the Wound Interface"!
January 2013
Congratulations to...Sylvia Qu for her paper entitled "Biomaterial-Mediated Delivery of Degradative Enzymes to Improve Meniscus Integration and Repair" accepted for publication in Acta Biomaterialia!
Tristan Driscoll for winning first prize in the Mechanobiology section at the 19th annual Bioengineering In Ireland Conference!
Bhavana Mohanraj for her award winning poster (2nd place) at the Bioengineering Graduate Group Research Symposium!
December 2012
Congratulations to...Tristan Driscoll for his paper entitled "Biaxial Mechanics and Inter-lamellar Shearing of Stem-Cell Seeded Electrospun Angle-Ply Laminates for Annulus Fibrosus Tissue Engineering" accepted for publication in Journal of Orthopedic Research!
Matt Fisher for his review paper entitled "Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: Recent Innovations and the Transition to Translation" accepted for publication in Tissue Engineering Part B!
November 2012
Congratulations to...Joe Chiaro (2nd Place, Histology Category), and Tristan Driscoll (2nd Place, Miscellaneous Category) for their award winning posters at the 2012 Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders Annual Symposium. Nice work!
October 2012
Congratulations to...Matt Fisher for his paper entitled "Organized Nanofibrous Scaffolds That Mimic the Macroscopic and Microscopic Architecture of the Knee Meniscus" accepted for publication in Acta Biomaterialia!
September 2012
Congratulations to...Su-Jin Heo for his award winning poster (3rd Place) at the 2012 IRM/CECR Tissue Engineering Symposium!
Megan Farrell for her book chapter entitled "Advancing Articular Cartilage Repair Through Tissue Engineering -- From Materials and Cells to Clinical Translation" accepted for publication in Biomaterials in Regeneration Medicine!
Dr. Lara Ionescu for her paper entitled "Porosity and Cell Preseeding Influence Electrospun Scaffold Maturation and Meniscus Integration in Vitro" accepted for publication in Tissue Engineering
Liming Bian for his paper entitled "The Influence of Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogel Crosslinking Density and Macromolecular Diffusivity on Human MSC Chondrogenesis and Hypertrophy" accepted for publication in Biomaterials
Brian Cosgrove for passing his qualifying exam!
August 2012
Congratulations to...Brendon Baker, Roshan Shah and Amy Silverstein for their paper entitled "Sacrificial nanofibrous composites provide instruction without impediment and enable functional tissue formation", just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA! Great work team!
For more info on this exciting work, see: Penn Medicine News Release: Composite Nanofibers Developed by Penn Scientists Next Chapter in Orthopaedic Biomaterials
Rob Mauck for being elected vice-chair of the 2014 (and chair of the 2016) Gordon Conference on Musculoskeletal Biology and Bioengineering!
July 2012
Congratulations to...Matt Fisher for having his poster selected for presentation at the 2012 Gordon Conference on Musculoskeletal Biology and Bioengineering!
Sylvia Qu and Claire McLeod for passing their qualifying exams!
Welcome to...
New Orthopaedic Resident Andrew Milby!
New Medical Student Stuart Kinsella!
New Post-Doctoral Fellow Alexandra Farran!
June 2012
Congratulations to...Megan Farrell for her paper entitled "Mesenchymal stem cells produce functional cartilage matrix in three-dimensional culture in regions of optimal nutrient supply" published in eCells and Materials
Lara Ionescu Silverman for her paper entitled "Growth Factor Supplementation Improves Native and Engineered Meniscus Repair in Vitro" accepted for publication in accepted for publication in Acta Biomaterialia.
Alice Huang for her paper entitled "Sliding contact loading enhances the tensile properties of mesenchymal stem cell-seeded hydrogels" accepted for publication in eCells and Materials
Amy Silverstein for winning 2nd Place in the Fluids, Cell Mechanics and Tissue Engineering Master's Level Poster Competition at the ASME summer bioengineering meeting for her poster entitled "Mesenchymal stem cell morphology in a fibrous microenvironment with length scales matching the native menicus"
Good-bye to...
Orthopaedic Resident Nicole Belkin!
May 2012
Congratulations to...John Martin for winning the 2012 Force and Motion Scholarship!
Chieh Hou for the arrival of Eliot Hou, born May 13th!
April 2012
Congratulations to...Tristan Driscoll for successfully completing his thesis proposal!
NSF Graduate Fellowship Awardees and honorable mentions from the Mauck Lab! -- Amy Silverstein, Greg Lee, and Bhavana Mohanraj!
March 2012
Congratulations to...Minwook Kim for his paper entitled "Transient exposure to TGF-B3 improves the functional chondrogenesis of MSC-laden hyaluronic acid hydrogels" accepted for publication in our Special Issue on Tissue Engineering in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials.
Su-Jin Heo and DongHwa Kim for the arrival of Ariana Heo, born March 4th!
February 2012
Mara in the news! Tissue Engineering for Meniscal Tears: OREF grant recipient seeks to preserve joint after treatment
December 2011
Welcome to...New Graduate Student Claire McLeod!
Congratulations to...
Isaac Erickson for his paper entitled "Improved cartilage repair via in vitro pre-maturation of MSC seeded hyaluronic acid hydrogels" accepted for publication in Biomedical Materials as a special issue article.
Brendon Baker for his paper entitled "Fabrication and Evaluation of Biomimetic-Synthetic Nanofibrous Composites for Soft Tissue Regeneration" accepted for publication in a special issue of Cell and Tissue Research.
November 2011
Welcome to DongHwa Kim, and congratulations on her Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the National Research Foundation of Korea!Congratulations to...
Tristan Driscoll for his paper entitled "Fiber Angle and Aspect Ratio Influence the Shear Mechanics of Oriented Electrospun Nanofibrous Scaffolds" published in JMBBM.
Lachlan Smith for his paper entitled "Nucleus pulposus cells synthesize a functional extracellular matrix and respond to inflammatory cytokine challenge following long term agarose culture" published in the ECM journal.
Matt Fisher for a fantastic score on his F32 application! Way to go Matt!
Stuart Kinsella for his acceptance to the Penn Master's of Translational Research Program!
October 2011
Congratulations to...Dr. Lara Ionescu Silverman for successfully defending her thesis on October 25th, 2011. Way to go Doc!
Su-Jin Heo (1st Place, Biomechanics), Brian Cosgrove (2nd Place, Biomechanics), and Mara Schenker (1st Place, Imaging and 3rd Place, Histology) for their award winning posters at the 2011 Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders Annual Symposium. Nice work!
September 2011
Welcome to...New Research Engineer Bhavana Mohanraj!
Congratulations to...
Su-Jin Heo and his coauthors for their paper "Fiber Stretch and Reorientation Modulates Mesenchymal Stem Cell Morphology and Fibrous Gene Expression on Oriented Nanofibrous Microenvironments" being selected as the cover art of the November issue of the Annals of Biomedical Engineering! Nice work all!
August 2011
Congratulations to...Jason, Rob and the cartilage tissue engineering group for having their work highlighted in the Philadelphia Inquirer! Check Up: University of Pennsylvania Researchers Regrowing Cartilage in Lab
Su-Jin Heo for having his paper highlighted in the BMES bulletin! Nice work! ABME Journal Highlight: Growing human tissue using adult stem cells could ease back pain
July 2011
Good-bye to Mara Schenker and Welcome to the new Orthopaedic Resident Nicole Belkin!Congrats and Good-bye to Kilief Zellars, Lab Assistant extraordinaire! Have fun in Ghana and do good things!
Congratulations to...
Sujin Heo for having his paper entitled "Fiber Stretch and Reorientation Modulates Mesenchymal Stem Cell Morphology and Fibrous Gene Expression on Oriented Nanofibrous Microenvironments" accepted for publication in Annals of Biomedical Engineering. Nice work!
Dr. Isaac Erickson, the newest Mauck Lab PhD. Well done Isaac! We'll miss you tons but will visit often in sunny CA!
June 2011
Welcome to...New Research Engineer Elizabeth Henning!
New Graduate Student Brian Cosgrove!
Congratulations to...
Megan Farrell, Jon Kluge, and Tristan Driscoll for excellent presentations at the Summer Bioengineering Conference at Nemacolin Woods!
Sujin Heo and Dong-Hwa Kim on their marriage! We wish we could have been there!
May 2011
Congratulations to Amy Silverstein, Eric Comeau, and Sydney Kestle on their graduation! You will all be missed!Good-bye to Tiffany Zachry, research engineer extraordinaire. Best of luck in your new position!
April 2011
Congratulations to...Lara Ionescu Silverman on her second place win in the Regenerative Medicine category for her talk entitled "Delivery of FGF from Nanofiber-Microsphere Composites for Meniscus Tissue Engineering" at the Northeast Bioengineering Conference at RPI in Troy, NY.
Rob Mauck for being elected to the editorial board of the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials.
March 2011
Congratulations to...Megan Farrell for completing her thesis proposal titled "Multi-scale Analysis of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Heterogeneity for Improved Cartilage Tissue Engineering" - way to go, Megan!
Kevin Huang on his acceptance to medical school - nice work, Kevin!
Tristan Driscoll for the publication of his paper titled "Fiber Angle and Aspect Ratio Influence the Shear Mechanics of Oriented Electrospun Nanofibrous Scaffolds" in Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials.
Isaac Erickson and Sydney Kestle on having their paper title "Cartilage Matrix Formation by Bovine Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Three-dimensional Culture is Age-dependent" published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®.
February 2011
Congratulations to...Lara Ionescu-Silverman for having her abstract titled "Delivery of FGF from Nanofiber-Microsphere Composites for Meniscus Tissue Engineering" accepted for a podium talk at the ASME First Global Congress on NanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology.
Mara Schenker and Nicole Belkin for having their grant "In Vivo Full-Thickness Cartilage Defect Repair with Stem-Cell Laden Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels" funded by the OREF for next year! This marks two years running that we've been able to win these very competitive grants, and is a testament to the quality of work you are all doing.
Mara Schenker for having her grant "Revisiting the Six-hour Rule in Open Fracture Management: The Effects of Antibiotics and Debridement on Soft Tissue Infections" also funded by the OREF. Can someone say superstar?
Nandan Nerurkar for his paper entitled Modeling interlamellar interactions in angle-ply biologic laminates for annulus fibrosus tissue engineering published in Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology.
January 2011
Congratulations to...Brendon Baker, Roshan Shah, and Alice Huang for the publication of their paper titled "Dynamic tensile loading improves the functional properties of msc-laden nanofiber-based fibrocartilage" in Tissue Engineering Part A.
Liming Bian for his paper entitled "Coculture of human mesenchymal stem cells and articular chondrocytes reduces hypertrophy and enhances functional properties of engineered cartilage" published in Tissue Engineering Part A.
Sylvia Qu for winning the 2011 University of Pennsylvania Women's Club Student Travel Grant from the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association for Women in Science!
Welcome to...
Matt Fisher, our new post-doc joining us from Pittsburgh.
December 2010
Congratulations to...Rob Mauck, who was officially approved for promotion to Associate Professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2011. Even a cursory glance at his CV will show how deserving he is of the honor, and as Mauck Lab members, we're all very proud of him. Congratulations, Rob!
Su-Jin Heo, Nandan Nerurkar, and Rob Mauck for having their abstract selected for presentation in the "Rising Stars" session of the upcoming BMES-SPRBM Conference on Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering. Nice work!
Roshan Shah and Mara Schenker for winning first and second place, respectively, at the OREF Research Symposium at Johns Hopkins University. Way to go!
November 2010
Congratulations to...Daniel Zhou for gaining admittance to the Rachleff Scholars Program, a prestigious program in engineering to which only students with a strong attitude towards research are admitted.
Megan Farrell for taking 2nd place at this year's PCMD Symposium poster competition.
October 2010
Congratulations to...The entire Mauck Lab for the strong showing they will have at the 2011 ORS Annual Meeting. Of the 20 submissions from the group, we were awarded 9 posters (including 1 NIRA finalist), 7 short talks, and 4 full talks. Congratulations everyone - please pat yourselves on the back!
September 2010
Congratulations to...Nandan Nerurkar for his paper entitled "Homologous structure-function relationships between native fibrocartilage and tissue engineered from MSC-seeded nanofibrous scaffolds" published in Biomaterials.
August 2010
Congratulations to...Nandan Nerurkar and Brendon Baker for their paper entitled "Dynamic Culture Enhances Stem Cell Infiltration and Modulates Extracellular Matrix Production on Aligned Electrospun Nanofibrous Scaffolds," to be published in Acta Biomaterialia.
Ashwin Nathan, Brendon Baker, and Nandan Nerurkar for their paper entitled "Mechano-Topographic Modulation of Stem Cell Nuclear Shape on Nanofibrous Scaffolds", to be published in Acta Biomaterialia. Great job, gents!
Lara Ionescu, Grant Garcia, Tiffany Zachry, Roshan Shah, and Brian Sennett on their mansucript entitled "Maturation State Dependent Alterations in Meniscus Integration: Implications for Scaffold Design and Tissue Engineering", to be published in Tissue Engineering, Part A. Great job all!
June 2010
Congratulations to...Dr. Brendon Baker, newly defended PhD recipient and 3rd in a series of recent graduates of the Mauck Lab.
Brendon Baker for receiving 3rd place in the ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference PhD level student paper competition.
May 2010
Congratulations to...Brendon Baker for receiving the 6th World Congress on Biomechanics (WCB 2010) Student Travel Award.
Dr. Alice Huang, the Mauck Lab's most recent PhD recipient.
Brendon Baker, Ashwin Nathan, Al Gee, and Rob Mauck on the acceptance of their paper titled "The Influence of an Aligned Nanofibrous Topography on Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Fibrochondrogenesis" to Biomaterials.
Alice Huang, Brendon Baker, Nandan Nerurkar, and Grace O'Connell (pictured with mentors Rob Mauck and Dawn Elliott), some of the members of the McKay Lab's graduating class of 2010.
April 2010
Congratulations to...Dr. Nandan Nerurkar, first PhD recipient of the Mauck Lab.
Alice Huang for her paper titled Evaluation of the complex transcriptional topography of mesenchymal stem cell chondrogenesis for cartilage tissue engineering published in Tissue Engineering Part A.
Nandan Nerurkar and Alice Huang for their paper titled Engineered disc-like angle-ply structures for intervertebral disc replacement published in Spine.
Megan Farrell for receiving an Honorable Mention for the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Program
The entire Mauck Lab for getting 9 out of 9 abstracts accepted to this year's ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference in Naples, Florida.
Greg Lee, Rudra Pampati, and Amy Silverstein for receiving summer internships from the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
March 2010
Congratulations to...Alice Huang, Megan Farrell, and Minwook Kim for their paper titled Long-term dynamic loading improves the mechanical properties of chondrogenic mesenchymal stem cell-laden hydrogels published in European Cells and Materials.
Mara Schenker, Roshan Shah, and all of the investigators involved in the project titled In vivo and in vitro of engineered nanofibrous scaffolds in meniscus defects - this year's recipient of OREF's MTF/Charles H. Herndon Resident Clinician Scientist Training Grant!
February 2010
Welcome to new Research Engineer Daniel Heo.Congratulations to...
Lara Ionescu for her paper titled An anisotropic nanofiber/microsphere composite with controlled release of biomolecules for fibrous tissue engineering soon to be released in Biomaterials.
Nandan Nerurkar for his review paper titled Mechanical design criteria for intervertebral disc tissue engineering in Journal of Biomechanics.
Megan Farrell for receiving a Travel Award from the Philadelphia Chapter of the Association for Women in Science.
Brendon Baker and Alice Huang for receiving Travel Awards from the Penn Graduate and Professional Student Assembly.
January 2010
Congratulations to Alice Huang and Megan Farrell for their review paper "Mechanics and mechanobiology of mesenchymal stem cell-based engineered cartilage" published in the Journal of Biomechanics.Welcome to new Post-doctoral Fellow Jonathan Kluge.
December 2009
Congratulations to...Nandan Nerurkar for his recent publication and cover art selection of "Nanofibrous Biologic Laminates Replicate the Form and Function of the Annulus Fibrosus" in Nature Materials.
Isaac Erickson for his recent publication of the paper "Macromer density influences mesenchymal stem cell chondrogenesis and maturation in photocrosslinked hyaluronic acid hydrogels" in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage.
Rob Mauck for his election to the Editorial Board of Tissue Engineering (Parts A, B, and C).
November 2009
Congratulations to...Nandan Nerurkar for his second prize showing in the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders Annual Symposium student poster competition.
Brendon Baker for the publication and cover art selection for his recent manuscript "Fabrication and modeling of dynamic multi-polymer nanofibrous scaffolds" published in the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.
Alice Huang for her recent paper "Transient exposure to transforming growth factor beta 3 improves the mechanical properties of mesenchymal stem cell-laden cartilage constructs in a density-dependent manner" published in Tissue Engineering Part A.
The entire Mauck Lab -- Sixteen out of sixteen abstracts accepted for the 2010 Orthopaedic Research Society Meeting! Way to go team! Get your beads ready for New Orleans...
October 2009
Congratulations to...Brendon Baker for winning the Graduate Student Research Award at the Biomedical Engineering Society Meeting in Pittsburgh.
September 2009
Congratulations to...Brendon Baker and Lara Ionescu for the publication of their review paper "New Directions in Nanofibrous Scaffolds for Soft Tissue Engineering and Regeneration" in the journal Expert Reviews of Medical Devices.
August 2009
Welcome to new Research Engineer -- Minwook KimGood-bye and good luck to Ashwin Nathan
July 2009
Welcome to the new Orthopaedic Resident -- Roshan ShahCongratulations to our Award Winners at the Summer ASME Bioengineering Meeting!
- Nandan Nerurkar -- Honorable Mention in Cell and Tissue Engineering and Mechanics PhD Oral Competition!
- Lara Ionescu -- 2nd Place in the Cell and Tissue Engineering and Mechanics Master's Level Poster Competition!
- Ashwin Nathan -- 1st Place in the Cell and Tissue Engineering and Mechanics Bachelor's Level Poster Competition!
May 2009
Congratulations to David Lee and Robert Mauck on their award from the Human Frontiers in Science Program for their proposal titled "Mechanoregulation of nuclear architecture and genome function: A novel mechanism in stem cell fate."The major goal of this project is to develop an international research consortium with investigators from the US, Germany, and the UK to investigate the role of nuclear deformation and chromosomal rearrangement on cell fate decisions. This information will be used to guide fate decisions in directing human mesenchymal stem cells towards specified lineages with mechanical loading regimes.