Assistant Professor

Orthopaedic Surgery

Orthopaedic Research

University of California, Davis (Davis, CA)

Cartilage Biomechanics and Growth Factor-Matrix Interactions

My group studies cartilage formation, homeostasis, and pathology, using 3 complementary approaches. Cartilage is a mechanical tissue and requires mechanical stimulus for its formation and maintenance, we therefore study mechanotransduction in cartilage, to identify how physical forces are converted into gene-expression responses and how the cytoskeleton maintains cell stiffness. Mechanical damage to cartilage after trauma leads to arthritis, the major cartilage pathology. We have developed a non-invasive mouse model of post-traumatic osteoarthritis, and are using the powerful genetics available in mice to study the early stages of disease initiation. Cartilage is mostly extracellular matrix, and this matrix serves as reservoir of growth-factors and cytokines, and also as a filter that controls how these small molecules are presented to the cells within the matrix. We discovered that matrix components regulate the activity of powerful BMP and TGFß molecules, and we are studying this in healthy and diseased cartilage.