Molecular Biology (SFGH)

Director: Ralph Marcucio, PhD, Assistant Professor

The major focus of the work performed in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory is to examine the processes that occur during bone regeneration after traumatic injury. Understanding the events that occur during fracture repair is essential for developing therapies to help people that exhibit difficulties in bone healing. For example, delayed or non-union afflict approximately 10% of all people undergoing fracture repair. By understanding how the body normally responds to orthopaedic trauma, we are laying the foundation for the development of new therapeutic regimens to treat a wide variety of skeletal pathologies. Our research utilizes a murine tibia fracture model that was developed by members of the laboratory and is used in other laboratories throughout the national and international orthopaedic research community.

Current lab projects:

1. Role of muscle in bone healing
2. Role of inflammation in bone healing
3. Role of angiogenesis in bone healing
4. Genotype-phenotype correlations during skeletal development
5. Role of continuous phenotypic variation to disease production