Welcome to McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory
The McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory is looking to hire an Assistant Professor on the Tenure Track! For more information please visit click the link.
https://www.med.upenn.edu/orl/join-us-position.html
A program in orthopaedic research at the University of Pennsylvania was established in 1960, and in 1979 the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory officially opened, establishing all of the orthopaedic research laboratories in the same physical location. Currently, the McKay Lab is a thriving, multidisciplinary facility that occupies more than 22,000 square feet of space in Stemmler Hall in the Perelman School of Medicine. Our multi-faceted research programs involve the participation of more than 120 research personnel from 17 distinct laboratories. Research expenditures in McKay total more than $15,000,000 per annum, supported largely through extramural funding including grants from the National Institutes of Health, Veteran's Administration, other governmental agencies, private foundations, and industry. We are consistently ranked in the top 5 among Orthopaedic Departments nationally in terms of NIH funding. Our overall mission is to conduct high quality fundamental and translational research and to train the next generation of leaders in our field. Moreover, the McKay Lab serves as the focal point for the NIH-supported Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders, a university-wide Center that provides resources and a forum for scientific exchange through annual symposia, a year-long seminar series, a pilot grant program and other activities.
McKay Laboratory News
Congratulations Dr. Austin Jenk on a Successful Thesis Defense!
October 05, 2026
Congratulations to Dr. Austin Jenk on a stellar PhD defense! Austin is Dr. Gullbrand's first co-mentored student with our long-time collaborator Dr. Robert Mauck, and we are so proud of the strides Dr. Jenk has made in the continued development of our labs' Mechanically-Activated MicroCapsules (MAMC) for tunable drug delivery in the knee and spine.
Gullbrand Laboratory
The University of Utah Invites Dr. Gullbrand to Speak
September 16, 2026
Dr. Gullbrand spoke to the University of Utah's Department of Biomedical Engineering today in a talk entitled: "Understanding Multi-Tissue Interactions in Spinal Degeneration and Following Disc Repair."
Gullbrand Laboratory
Alexandra Baranyai Presents at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Annual Symposium
September 14, 2026
Undergraduate researcher Alexandra Baranyai presented work from her second summer in the lab at UPenn's CURF Annual Symposium exploring how we can pattern cell gradients for improved cartilage endplate engineering.
Gullbrand Laboratory