Dr. Hunter Levis Receives VA T-TERM Fellowship
August 31, 2026
Congratulations to postdoctoral researcher Dr. Hunter Levis for earning a two-year Fellowship Training in Translational Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (T-TERM). The fellowship is awarded by the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs CReATE Motion Research Center, and his proposal aims to develop a localized drug delivery platform for repairing the annulus fibrosus after disc injury. The core innovation is a tunable NorHA-ST hydrogel that independently controls mechanical stiffness and drug release, now being adapted to deliver biotinylated mRNA-LNPs so nucleic acid therapies like anti-inflammatory mRNA can be sustained and localized at the injury site.
Dr. Hunter Levis Receives NIH T32 Training Grant
August 24, 2026
Congratulations to postdoctoral researcher Dr. Hunter Levis for receiving a T32 grant from the National Institutes of Health's Training Program in Rheumatic Diseases. This award will investigate how loss of tension and initiation of inflammatory signaling cascades affect the annulus fibrosus following injury, probing how the interaction of mechanical and inflammatory cues block natural repair processes. Furthermore, the project with investigate how anti-inflammatory molecules may be used to restore annulus fibrosus homeostasis following these events.
Thank you to our summer students Alex Baranyai, Lindsay Bomba, Luv Kataria, and Lindsey Sydnor
August 20, 2026
The biggest thanks to the four wonderful students who joined us for the summer this year! We wish Lindsay Bomba, our 2026 American Society of Laboratory Animal Practitioners Fellow, and Luv Kataria, our 2026 Association of Academic Physiatrists Rehabilitation Research Experience Fellow, good luck as they return to veterinary and medical school this fall. We are so grateful you wanted to work with us this summer and are so proud of all the work you've accomplished in such a short period of time! We'd also like to thank medical student Lindsey Sydnor, who completed her first summer with us, and undergraduate researcher Alex Baranyai, who completed her second summer in the lab as part of UPenn's University Scholars Research Training Grant, for their outstanding contributions to our research! The commitment all four of you have shown to ensure everything you do is done well can not be understated, and we can't wait to see what you do next.
Colorado State University Invites Dr. Gullbrand to Speak
July 17, 2026
Dr. Gullbrand was invited to speak at Colorado State University's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences today where she talked about "Disc Degeneration and Repair Through the Lens of Multi-Tissue Crosstalk."
Dr. Layne Freeman Finishes Her Research Year in the Gullbrand Lab
June 30, 2026
Today Dr. Layne Freeman finished her research year in the Gullbrand Lab as part of the University of Pennsylvania's Laboratory Animal Veterinary Medicine Residency Program. Layne has been the driving force leading our active Merit Grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs "Predicting the Efficacy of Therapeutic Spinal Loading for Intervertebral Disc Degeneration" as we continue to understand how prescribed exercise may prevent degeneration of the spine. We are sad that Layne must leave us to return to the clinic and finish her last year of residency, but we are grateful that she has set this project up for continued success and will continue to prepare the results for publication to share with our orthopaedic community.