McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory

Description of Research Expertise

I am currently a Research Scientist in the Translational Musculoskeletal Research Center at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA
Medical Center, with a co-appointment as a Research Assistant Professor in the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory in the
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. As a graduate student, I was awarded a National Science
Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to pursue my thesis research on enhancing intervertebral disc nutrition as a potential
therapeutic strategy for the treatment of disc degeneration. My thesis work with Dr. Eric Ledet illustrated for the first time that
convective transport induced by mechanical loading can enhance the uptake and clearance of small molecules in the healthy and
degenerative disc. This work was awarded the 2015 ISSLS Prize for Lumbar Spine Research in Bioengineering, the most prestigious
award in the field of spine research. My postdoctoral research with Dr. Robert Mauck at the University of Pennsylvania furthered my
interests in disc regeneration and was focused on evaluating novel tissue engineered therapeutics for disc degeneration in translational
animal models. This work was supported by a VA Career Development Award (CDA-1), and our publication on the long-term in vivo
evaluation of a tissue engineered disc replacement in Science Translational Medicine was featured by numerous news outlets including
the Philadelphia Inquirer and Popular Science. My transition to independent faculty was supported by a VA RR&D CDA-2 Award to
study the contribution of vertebral endplate remodeling and altered disc nutrition on the progression of disc degeneration. My current
research interests, supported by NIH and VA awards, include studying crosstalk between the intervertebral disc and adjacent spinal
tissues (including the vertebral bone and facet joints) during degeneration, and translating new tissue engineering and regenerative
medicine therapeutics for the treatment of disc degeneration and disc herniation.