Musculoskeletal Adaptation

The vertebrate skeleton has an amazing capacity to sense and respond to mechanical stimuli through dynamic modeling and remodeling processes during growth and in adulthood. While these adaptive mechanisms help to prevent skeletal fracture, it is also believed that improper regulation of these processes may lead to degenerative skeletal diseases, like osteoporosis. In the lab we use experimental applied loading and unloading models to understand how control of these adaptive processes at the genetic and cellular levels affect whole bone mechanical function. This work involves relating bone tissue mechanics, modeled computationally, to biological and structural changes in the skeleton. We conduct these studies on novel genetic lines to examine the role of specific proteins in modulating the mechanobiological response to mechanical stimuli. We also study these issues broadly across different vertebrate groups to understand how adaptive plasticity in the skeleton has evolved in vertebrates and its role in musculoskeletal diversity.