The Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders, the longest-running NIH-sponsored musculoskeletal research center in the country, has received a pledge of $4 million to continue its collaborative efforts to make progress on a myriad of bone and tissue-related issues. The funding, renewed for another five years by the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will continue the center’s work that originally began in 2006.
“This center grant has allowed us to grow the community of musculoskeletal doctors and researchers in the Philadelphia region and neighboring states and provide critical physical and intellectual resources to tackle the most important problems in our field,” said the center’s founding director, Louis Soslowsky, Ph.D., the Fairhill Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine.
Today, the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders has 204 faculty members, 76 more than when the the grant was renewed five years ago. The five participating Penn schools are: the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the School of Dental Medicine, the School of Veterinary Medicine, and the School of Arts and Sciences.
We asked Dr. Soslowsky to recount some of the more exciting developments to come out of the center, He told OTW that “There are several developments that are particularly exciting to me and have strong potential to help many people.”
“For instance, Patrick Seale, M.D., from the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology studies adipose tissue biology and obesity pathogenesis and his lab recently developed an interest in connective tissue development and fibrosis. When he joined the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders, he collaborated with Ling Qin, Ph.D., and Eileen Shore, Ph.D., in orthopaedic surgery to investigate and identify a novel population of adipose-lineage cells that play a critical role in regulating bone marrow vasculature and bone formation.”
“Then there’s work by Robert Mauck, Ph.D., who leads the McKay Orthopaedic Research Lab. His team produces nanofibrous scaffold that direct the construction of meniscus tissue, which is notoriously dense and difficult to form, both in vitro and in vivo. This has strong potential to regenerate tissue lost or damaged due to injuries or chronic conditions. The Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders has enabled much of this work and will facilitate a coming analysis of this work when applied in large animals.
“Additionally, Zhiliang Cheng, Ph.D., from Bioengineering designs novel imaging agents and drug delivery systems, particularly through nanoparticles. His collaborations with other members of the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders have resulted in the production of PLA2 inhibitor-loaded phospholipid micelles that alleviate neuropathic spine pain and a separate nanoparticle-based treatment for halting osteoarthritis.”
We also asked Dr. Soslowsky about plans for the center over the next 12 months and he said, “We will launch ‘Learning on a Limb’ through the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders in partnership with the McKay Lab as a new inner-city high school outreach program where a cohort of (16, initially, but more could be accommodated) of local students will experience a full day workshop focused on introducing them to the musculoskeletal research field. Five of these participants (initially) will be placed in a six-week paid summer internship. They also will be mentored by five of our lab trainees to give them a comprehensive exposure to STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] careers. Our approach is to first engage the students’ sense of scientific wonderment, then use this entrance as a segue into musculoskeletal research. On top of the experience itself, these students’ network of research professionals and peers will grow.”
