The clinical consequences of tissue injury and repair are determined by the tissue's ability to function.The function of musculoskeletal tissues is primarily mechanical: they support and distribute loads, providemotion, and dissipate energy in response to loading encountered during the activities of daily living. Thestructure and composition of these tissues are tailored to meet these demanding functions. With injury, thestructure, composition, and mechanical function of the tissue break down. The goal of repairs is to restorethe structure, composition, and mechanical function. Musculoskeletal tissues function under large and multidirectionalloads, and they do so via a complex set of tissue mechanical behaviors that are anisotropic,viscoelastic, nonlinear, and inhomogeneous. Musculoskeletal tissues each have unique collagenarchitecture within an extrafibrillar matrix, and encompass a wide array of compositional and structuralvariety with respect to collagen and proteoglycan types, as well as other extracellular matrix constituents.As musculoskeletal treatments become more sophisticated, as our understanding of molecular biologicmechanisms become deeper, as genetically-engineered mice and rats are developed to ask questions neverbefore possible, and as our imaging technologies advance, we must similarly be innovative in ourunderstanding and quantification of tissue mechanical function and structural organization. The overallobjective of this Structure Function Biomechanics Core is to develop and utilize a wide range of functionalmechanical and structural assays of musculoskeletal tissue injury and repair, and to provide training andfunding for new projects and collaborations utilizing these assays.
The Specific Aims are:
Aim 1 : To provide guidance and training on the capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages of the variousmethodologies to assess musculoskeletal tissue biomechanical function and structure through formaleducational enrichment programs and one-on-one interactions;
Aim 2 : To provide expertise and service forbiomechanical function assays of musculoskeletal tissues;
Aim 3 : To provide expertise and service forstructural assays of musculoskeletal tissues;
and Aim 4 : To provide funding for development of new projectsand collaborations and to develop preliminary and/or feasibility data for investigators.Successful completion of these aims will significantly enhance the environment and the capabilities ofresearchers at the University of Pennsylvania, leading to new approaches to address musculoskeletaldisorders and new collaborations between Core faculty who may have not previously included mechanicalfunction and structural organization in their musculoskeletal research programs.
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