The Bioengineering Laboratory

The Bioengineering Laboratory, under the direction of Guoan Li, PhD, has entered its 12th year and is a leader in the field of musculoskeletal engineering and biomechanics. They continue to make significant contributions to several subspecialty areas including knee, arthroplasty, and spine biomechanics. They reported the first in-vitro biomechanical measurement of reduced contact pressure in the medial compartment of the knees, when subjected to a simulated muscle loading protocol. Another exciting development in the Laboratory is the establishment of a research team with an objective to accurately determine in-vivo hip articular contact kinematics in normal subjects and patients after total hip replacement.

The Laboratory has a fabulous team of outstanding graduate students from MIT, postdoctoral fellows and research staff. This year, they are proud to appoint Drs. Ali Hosseini and Shaobai Wang as instructors. In collaboration with Dr. Warner, Mr. Massimini continues to conduct research on in-vivo shoulder biomechanics and is simultaneously working toward his PhD. Dr. Hosseini, together with Mr. Hemanth Gadikota and Mr. Jingsheng Li, has been working closely with Drs. Thomas Gill, Peter Asnis and Luke Oh on a R01 grant evaluating in-vivo knee biomechanics after ACL injuries (with and without a combined meniscal tear) and reconstruction. Dr. Wang is actively studying intrinsic biomechanics of the cervical and lumbar spine in collaboration with Drs. Kirkham Wood, Thomas Cha, Frederick Mansfield and Brian Grottkau. Dr. TsungYuan Tsai is actively concentrating on in-vivo hip kinematics using fluoroscopic imaging systems in collaboration with Drs. Young-Min Kwon, Henrik Malchau and me. The hip research team has validated an imaging method for investigation of in-vivo six-degrees-of-freedom kinematics of the hip before and after total hip replacement. This system is being used to evaluate the effect of cup orientation as well as the edge loading and impingement on patient function.

Dr. Sam Van de Velde has begun his orthopaedic residency at Leiden University Medical Center of the Netherlands; Dr. Michal Kozanek has started his orthopaedic residency at the Combined Harvard Orthopaedic Residency Program and Ms. Chelsea Garner, a former lab intern, has been accepted in the medical school of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Congratulations! Mr. Hemanth Gadikota and Mr. JingSheng Li are the lab’s core bioengineers and have actively participated in a variety of clinical and biomechanical research projects. Mr. Gadikota has been conducting a series of biomechanical testing of various ACL reconstruction techniques and cartilage contact characteristics using the robotic testing system. Mr. Li and orthopaedic residents have been conducting tensile testing to identify an optimal muscle suturing technique to repair muscle lacerations. There have also been several new additions to the Laboratory. Dr. Shinzuke came from Nihon University Hospital in Tokyo to investigate the ACL biomechanics during stair ascending. Dr. Shin, an attending spine surgeon from Seoul, Korea, and Dr. Qi Yao, an attending spine surgeon from Beijing, China, joined the spine research team to help Drs. Wood and Cha in their study of biomechanics of spinal scoliosis and cervical fusion. Dr. Wei Qi from Beijing and Dr. Wang from Xian, China joined the Laboratory to examine deep knee flexion biomechanics and the femoral condyle offset after total knee arthroplasty. Mr. Martin Kosztowski, a medical student from University of Illinois Medical School, came to investigate the in-vivo behavior of MCL and LCL after TKA. Another exciting achievement is the qualification of Ms. Genevra Stone, a third-year medical student from Tufts University, to represent Team USA in the 2012 London Summer Olympics. In addition to this challenge, she has been working on several sports medicine-related research projects at our Laboratory.

Furthermore, this year at the ORS/AAOS meetings, the team presented over 28 abstracts, including podium and presentations. They published over 30 articles in prestigious peer-reviewed journals in the areas of arthroplasty, sports medicine, spine, foot and ankle, and biomechanics. In addition, the team continued to secure several competitive grants from the NIH and other foundations to study the biomechanical intricacies of ACL reconstruction, degenerative disc disease and hip/knee arthroplasty. Another fabulous year!