Email this pageMusculoskeletal System
Conditional activation of
ß-catenin leads to osteoarthritis-like
phenotype. Top: Normal knee joint.
Bottom: Loss of articular cartilage
(brown arrows) and osteophyte
formation
(blue arrows) in knee
joint of mouse with conditionally
activated ß-catenin. (Illustration
courtesy of Dr. Di Chen.)
Pathways of Human Disease program faculty studying various aspects of the musculoskeletal system are members of the URMC Center for Musculoskeletal Research, the nation’s #1 NIH funded center for orthopaedic research. Major research areas include:
- The Bone Biology program is focused on defining the signals and mechanisms that direct osteoblasts to differentiate and localize the formation of new bone to regions where osteoclast bone resorption has occurred.
- The Skeletal Repair program uses animal models of fracture healing and structural bone grafting to study repair mechanisms. Approaches include cell-based tissue engineering and gene therapy.
- Investigators in the Bone Cancer program are studying the mechanism of bone destruction following breast and prostate cancer metastasis, and the associated biochemical pathways.
- The Stem Cells and Developmental Biology program covers broad interests in the identification, self-renewal, maintenance, cell fate determination, and differentiation of several types of skeletal stem cells.
- The Inflammatory Disease program focuses on the pathophysiology of bone erosions in inflammatory arthritis.
- Faculty in the Cartilage Biology program investigate the mechanisms of chondrocyte metabolism to elucidate processes of development and skeletal growth and disease, and osteoarthritis and cartilage degradation.
Elucidation of cellular signaling pathways in osteoblasts and osteoclasts provides new approaches for curing bone diseases. (Illustration courtesy of Dr. J. Edward Puzas.)
Dysregulation of bone cell activity
leads of loss of skeletal mass resulting
in osteoporosis and pathologic
fractures. (Illustration courtesy of
Dr. J. Edward Puzas.)
Pathology Ph.D. Faculty investigating musculoskeletal diseases:
