Research

In the Henak Lab, we study orthopedic biomechanics and mechanobiology, with a core hypothesis that the microscale mechanical environment can be used to predict, delay, and prevent orthopedic diseases.  Our current research is focused on three central themes:  (1) failure in orthopedic tissues; (2) evaluation of material behavior; and (3) regeneration and repair.

Failure in Orthopedic Tissues

Orthopedic tissues are predominantly load-bearing, so understanding mechanically-mediated failure is important.  Current projects in this area include:  computationally-predicted bone fracture risk and predicting fracture toughness in cartilage.

Similarly, accurately diagnosing structural and biological failure is vital to accurately treating individual patients. Current project in this area: optical redox image for diagnostics and therapeutic screening.

Evaluation of Material Behavior

Material behavior of biological tissues is indicative of tissue health and can be used to build subject-specific computational models.  Tissue surrogates serve to reveal fundamental mechanics that can be extrapolated to tissues. Current projects in this area include:  characterization of meningeal properties, MR-based non-invasive estimation of cartilage material properties, material properties of physeal growth plates, and wave-based characterization of gelatin.

Regeneration and Repair

Regeneration and repair is key to overcoming the failure studied in theme one, but many orthopedic tissues are relatively hindered in this regard due to challenging mechanical environments coupled with low cell density and hypovascularization.  Ultimately, we want to understand and manipulate regeneration and repair following injury as a means to improve patient outcomes.  Current project in this area:  short-term metabolic response to mechanical stimuli.