The Growth and Development Laboratory is investigating the development of biological therapies, including the administration of anti-fibrosis agents after injury and muscle-derived stem cell transplantation in dystrophic muscles, to improve muscle regeneration. Dr. Ambrosio’s research involves translating these murine models for improving muscle repair after injury into pre-clinical and clinical trials. Dr. Ambrosio also has interests in the effect of mobility devices used on muscle strength, fatigue and quality of life in persons with multiple sclerosis.

Appointments:
Instructor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the School of Medicine

Funding:
Research Supplement for Underrepresented Minorities -Parent Grant: “Muscle Regeneration Through Stem Cell Transplantation” (2005 - Present)
University of Pittsburgh - NSF-IGERT Graduate Research Fellowship 2004-2005; 2003-2004

Dr. Barry is a Post-doctoral Associate in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. She recived her undergraduate degree and MSc in Biocehmistry at Queen’s University under the mentorship of Dr. Chris Mueller, and her PhD at the University of Toronto in the Department of BioPhysics with Dr. Andre Schuh. Dr. Barry has over a decade of experience in cell culture, molecular biology, and animal work, and has primarily spent the past three years being trained for and setting up a stem cell research program at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Barry's research predominantly focuses on better understanding concomitant signal-induced transformation of postnatal stem cells, and translating this research from a murine to a human model. Dr. Barry is also involved in elucidating the involvement of the host's immune system in the transformation of somatic stem cells.

Appointments:
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Medicine
University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute

Spinal cord injury affects approximately 2.5 million people worldwide, resulting in severe physical disability with significant decrease in quality of life and productivity, as well as the need for expensive life-long medical care. There is currently no cure, and current treatment modalities do not result in complete restoration of previous function. Stem cell-based therapies are an exciting new strategy that may facilitate the regeneration of the damaged area of the spinal cord through differentiation of multipotent cells into functional neurons and supporting glial cells. Many different cell types have been explored with only limited success thus far. In our laboratory, we have already shown the potential of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) to repair sciatic nerve defects, suggesting that these cells have significant neurogenic potential. Additionally, the ease of obtaining these cells from a minimally invasive muscle punch biopsy makes MDSCs an attractive cell type for treatment of spinal cord injury. My project will be focused on evaluating the ability of MDSCs for repair of the injured spinal cord and to improve the healing capacity of these cells through a variety of methods.

Mr. Bosco has worked within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery for over four years. Mr. Bosco has served as a financial analyst for the Growth and Development Laboratory and for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. In March 2006 he served as the Research Administrator for the Stem Cell Research Center.

In July 2007, he was promoted to the position of Research Manager of the Stem Cell Research Center. Mr. Bosco has a bachelor’s degree in finance from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s in Business Administration from Robert Morris University.

Mr. Bosco oversees all of the finances and administration for the Stem Cell Research Center.

Dr. Chen's research is focused upon the identification and characterization of potential stem/progenitor cell populations in the heart.

Mr. Cummins has been with Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh for the past twenty-one years. Beginning in the Department of Medical Genetics as a Cytogenetics Technologist, Mr. Cummins successfully rose to the position of Laboratory Manager there before accepting the same position and title with Dr. Huard in the Growth and Development Laboratory in 1999. After 6 productive years as Laboratory Manager, he accepted a promotion to the position of Manager of Research in January of 2006. Mr. Cummins now serves as the Senior Scientist for the Stem Cell Research Center (SCRC).

Mr. Cummins has a firm understanding of the ongoing science being performed in the laboratory, and currently acts as the lead research scientist in the SCRC. His scientific background and knowledge, combined with his keen understanding of institutional policy, make him a uniquely valuable asset to the aims and to the people of the SCRC.

Ms. Drowley is a Ph.D. Candidate in the department of Pathology in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and her PhD work focuses on investigating the use of muscle derived stem cells for cardiac repair. She began her graduate research by examining basic science questions about the influence of donor cell sex and age for cardiac and skeletal muscle regeneration. Results from these studies indicate that there is no sex difference in muscle-derived stem cells for cardiac repair. The muscle-derived stem cell populations also appear to escape much of the negative effects associated with aging, including reduced regeneration capacity. The age of the host, however, does impact the repair process, with older hosts having reduced regeneration. She has also examined methods to improve functional repair after a myocardial infarction in a mouse model. The environment after a myocardial infarction is highly stressful, which could account for the low cell survival seen after transplantation. We hypothesized that the poor cell survival limited functional repair, and treatments to increase cell survival after transplantation could have significant therapeutic benefits. The two methods that she chose were 1) pretreatment of cells with N-acetylcysteine to increase antioxidant levels, and 2) mechanical stimulation of cells prior to injection. We found that the release of VEGF is the critical factor in mechanical activation, and that mechanical stimulation-induced angiogenesis plays a role in improved maintenance of cardiac function after injury. We also show that antioxidants play a critical role in protecting the cell from both inflammatory and oxidative stress, and when antioxidant levels are increased in cells, there is a corresponding increase in regenerative capacity for cardiac repair. She has been the recipient of the "Cellular Approaches to Tissue Engineering and Regeneration " predoctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health and the McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine, and has presented her work at a wide variety of national meetings.

Joe has been with the SCRC since 2005. He has worked on a number of projects with different investigators, including the sex-related differences in donor cells in cell-mediated skeletal muscle regeneration, the role of VEGF on Dystrophic skeletal muscle regeneration, various experiments utilizing automated robotic live cell imaging, and most recently investigating the potential of cell therapy on a genetically defective progeroid mouse model that exhibits accelerated aging and age-related pathologies.

Mr. Ferrari, from Sao Paulo Brazil, is a visiting scholar with an MS in Physical Therapy. He is working in the Translational Research and Rehabilitation Core at the Stem Cell Research Center, and is focusing on a project to investigate the effects of different kinds of exercise following MDSC implantation therapy. From this work he hopes to find methods to improve the efficacy of MDSC implantation therapy for myopathies.

In our lab, muscle derived stem cells (MDSCs) are isolated from the skeletal muscles of the mouse by a modification of the preplate technique. We have several projects that involve using these stem cells to regenerate and repair injured skeletal muscles in Duchenne muscular dystrophy mouse model (MDX mouse), cardiac muscle, and bone marrow. Donor cells are either engineered with reporter genes before they are injected, or they are injected without engineering. My research interest is how to best track non-engineered (normal) adult stem cells in recipient tissues, see if they proliferate, and check if they develop any chromosomal abnormalities, or if they fuse with host nuclei.

Dr. Huard became the Director of the Growth and Development Laboratory in 1996. Since that time, the laboratory has more than tripled in size with more than 50 diverse professionals (including basic scientists, residents, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and administrative staff).

Dr. Huard’s main research focus is gene therapy to skeletal muscle, and he has received international recognition for his research discoveries in this area. He started to concentrate his efforts on gene therapy at the Masters level of his schooling, completing both his masters and doctoral graduate studies. He also serves within the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine as the Deputy Director for Cellular Therapeutics, at the Center for Cell Therapeutics as director, as Associate Director of the Pittsburgh Tissue Engineering Initiative.

For more information visit our History page.

Appointments:
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Orthopaedic Research Laboratories, Biodynamics Laboratory

Dr. Lavasani is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology at San Jose State University and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh under the mentorship of Dr. Johnny Huard. At the SCRC, her multidisciplinary research explores the use of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) transplantation to enhance axonal/glial regeneration and provide functional recovery to peripheral nervous system (PNS) injuries in murine experimental models. Her proposed stem cell-based therapy concept is based upon the ability of transplanted stem cells to transform into specific tissue cell types or to participate in the recovery process by reducing axonal degeneration and scar formation, while promoting myelination. Her models evaluate th potential for MDSCs to adopt a Schwann cell (PNS supporting cell) phenotype in vitro and in vivo, and examine their plasticity in response to environmental cues to support nerve fiber regeneration and re-myelination.

Dr. Lavasani is also working on characterizing the role of aging using murine experimental models of genetically engineered mice with dramatically shortened lifespan with age-related pathologies. Her goal is to use wild type MDSCs-transplantation to delay or ameliorate the pathologies associated with aging using the mouse models of progeroid ERCC1-XPF-deficient mice.

She has won multiple awards, including the New Investigator Recognition Award (NIRA) at 53rd Annual ORS Meeting (2007); first place in the Scientific Retreat Poster Contest for Cellular Therapies at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (2007); Chancellor's Outstanding Student, University of Pittsburgh (2006); New Investigator Recognition Award (NIRA) Candidate at the 51st Annual ORS Meeting (2005); and Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards, University of Pittsburgh, Bioengineering Department (2005).

Dr. Li focuses his work on bone and cartilage tissue engineering by using skeletal muscle- derived cells. His projects include isolating different groups of cells from skeletal muscle, such as fibroblasts, myogenic cells and endothelial cells. Based on their differential reactions to the stimulation of BMP4 in vitro and in vivo, different groups of cells might be used for different applications in bone and cartilage repair therapy. Meanwhile, he is investigating the mechanisms of cell differentiation and the regulation of growth factors (BMP4 and VEGF) during ectopic endochondral bone formation in skeletal muscle. All the knowledge and techniques gained from his work with animals will be applied to his future research with human skeletal cells.

Appointments:
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery

Funding:
The Pittsburgh Foundation
Research project: Isolation of chondrogenic progenitor cells from fascia and their application for cartilage repair.
Amount: $5,000.00
Ref. #:M2004-0106

Dr. Yong Li is an Assistant Professor with tenure stream at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He also has other appointments within the University of Pittsburgh's department of Pathology and Bioengineering. Dr. Li's research has explored the properties of dedifferentiation from terminally differentiated states into adult stem cells. He has also studied the processes involved with fibrous scar formation in the injured and diseased tissues of the neuromuscular system. He has demonstrated that some growth factors were able to promote dedifferentiation of myocytes in cultured cells or in injured skeletal muscle of mammals. He is now investigating a potential relationship between fibrosis formation and dedifferentiation processes in injured and diseased tissues including Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD), a devastating X-linked muscle disorder characterized by progressive muscle weakness. His work has been published in over 46 scientific journals. His team is well funded by NIH, DOD and other grants.

Dr. Li currently is the director of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology (LMP) in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Pathology and Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh. The laboratory is also interested in translational studies and the clinical applications for musculoskeletal congenital diseases and traumatically injured tissues (www.pitt.edu/~yongli).

Mr. Loedding joined the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in September 2007. Prior to September 2007, he worked in Children’s Hospital’s Research Finance Department as their Financial Analyst monitoring and ensuring various research departments project expenses.

Now working as Orthopaedic Surgery’s Research Administrator, Paul will be responsible to monitor and analyze all Orthopaedic Surgery grant expenses, produce and finalize all grant Closeout Reports, and efficiently produce analyses and financial data reporting as assigned by the Department Grant Manager.

Mr. Loedding holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Robert Morris University.

Dr. Lu is responsible for the isolation, identification and characterization of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs). The researchers at the SCRC have already tried to isolate MDSCs by modifying a method called the preplate technique to obtain clonal colonies from mice of different ages and gender. Recently we have identified and isolated MDSC clones having different, unique characteristics.

My main project entails theregeneration of functional muscle by MDSC transplantation. It has been demonstrated that the use of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) can circumvent hurdles facing myoblast transfer therapy, consequently improve the efficiency of muscle regeneration and dystrophin delivery to dystrophic muscle. We have transplanted MDSCs into the gastrocnemius muscle of younger MDX mice in an attempt to improve muscle force. Furthermore, we are using NGF stimulated and NGF transduced MDSCs since we have recently observed that ex vivo NGF-stimulated MDSCs can significantly promote muscle regeneration upon injection. These studies are still underway.

Dr. Matsumoto's work currently focuses on leveraging bone and cartilage tissue engineering techniques to utilize muscle-derived stem cells for cartilage regeneration.

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Bioengineering and I joined the SCRC in May 2006. I work in the Bone and Cartilage Group, but specifically my research focuses on animal models of cellular therapies for bone repair. I have interests in sex-related differences in animal models, as well as models of long bone nonunions. I was awarded a New Investigator Poster Award at the 2nd Annual Meeting of Organization for the Study of Sex Differences, 2008 for work titled "Effect of Host Animal Sex on Ectopic Bone Formation by MDSCs". Additionally, my project titled "Model of Non-Union Repaid by Muscle-Derived Stem Cells" is currently funded for $5000 by The Albert B. Ferguson, Jr. M.D. Orthopaedic Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation.

B.S. in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, University of Kentucky 2004
Ph.D. Candidate in Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh 2005-present

My research is related with skeletal muscle regeneration and the administration of muscle derived stem cells for regenerative medicine. I have been studying whether multipotent stem cells can be induced by dedifferentiation/reprogramming of differentiated myoblasts or skin cells and whether the induced stem cells can contribute to skeletal muscle regeneration in mammals. I am also investigating the mechanisms of various protein factors in influencing the effect of myoblast/stem cell transplantation and preventing fibrosis formation in injured or diseased skeletal muscle. The main factors I am studying in my projects include: TGF-βs, Msx-1, Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs), and the insulin-like hormone relaxin.

I got my master's degree from Beijing University (China) and Ph.D. degree from University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Ms. Kiley Murray is the laboratory assistant within the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology (LMP). Her work focuses on developing molecular techniques such as RT-PCR and quantitative RT-PCR. She also is involved with general laboratory management.

Ms. Haiying Pan is a senior research technician within the Laboratory of Molecular Pathology (LMP). She is an expert in cell isolation and identifications. She also has experience with immune staining such as immunohistochemistry, immunocytochemistry, and western blot.

Joshua Plassmeyer is currently a research technician in the Clinical Translation and Rehabilitation division of the Stem Cell Research Center. Josh will begin his graduate study in the fall 2009 with Dr. Fabrisia Ambrosio. He will be enrolled in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Science’s PhD in Rehabilitation Science program. His research within Dr. Ambrosio’s lab entails investigating the effects of MDSC transplantation into aged skeletal muscle. In addition he also participates in studying the effects of exercise on muscle healing after injury.

Dr. Pollet directs the Bone and Cartilage Injuries Lab and the Stem Cell Ecology and Cancer Lab.

Appointments:
Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Medicine
Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute

Dr. Sekiya is a visiting Japanese Research Fellow from Osaka, Japan. He has many integrations within the group involving his surgical specialty on animal models. And he currently focuses on sheet shaped muscle-derived stem cell transplantation for infarct heart.

In addition to managing the Endothelial/Vascular/Adipose Cells Lab, my major responsibility is to provide regular molecular biology support for the SCRC, which includes performing RT-PCR to confirm the purity of FACS sorted cells, quantitative RT-PCR to analyze the gene expression, and using molecular techniques to detect human cells in human/mouse chimera tissues. I have also been actively involved in characterizing the capabilities of human pericytes and myo/endo cells as multi-potent progenitor cells.

Ms. Tebbets is a Senior Technician in the SCRC, and is involved in many different lab projects. She is also the lab's safety representative, and contributes tremendously to the daily running of the laboratory.

Dr. Usas's research is focused on bone and cartilage tissue engineering using adult skeletal muscle-derived stem cells, various growth factors, viral vectors, and different scaffolds. He is highly skilled in animal surgery, and also operates the microCT laboratory, which is equipped with a vivaCT40 from Scanco. Currently, Dr. Usas is leading a muscle healing study sponsored by Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc.

Appointments:
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
University of Pittsburgh

I am currently in my 4th year as an MD/PhD student and second year in the SCRC. Prior to joining the SCRC, I studied the nano-scale and interfacial mechanics of nano-structured materials by earning my masters in Materials Science from Johns Hopkins University and working as a research engineer at Motorola Semiconductor. While I remain interested in materials and their mechanical properties, which I hope to integrate into my current research in the form of biomaterials, two years of medical school has opened up a new area of interest in tissue engineering and stem cell therapies.

Myogenic stem cell engraftment in skeletal muscle for the purposes of healing and regeneration is a technique as full of promise as unanswered questions. Currently, I am interested in the oxidative and inflammatory stress tolerance of muscle derived cells and whether this tolerance has a large effect on engraftment. By sorting cells based on their production of anti-oxidant enzyme activity, such as aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), can we isolate a novel stem cell phenotype? Will this phenotype yield higher rates of engraftment? Our data and the related literature suggest that stress resistance is indeed a very important phenotypic behavior of stem cells however how this behavior can be best utilized for stem cell therapies remains an open question.

In past years, Dr. Wang has been engaged in projects that concentrated on gene therapy for neuromuscular disorders, specifically Duchenne and Limb Girdle muscular dystrophies, using AAV viral vectors as gene vehicles. He directs the Molecular Therapeutics Lab.

Dr. Wright is an orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) who specializes in sports medicine and cartilage repair. Dr. Wright sees patients in the clinic at the UPMC Center for Sports Medicine, and performs surgery at UPMC Shadyside and UPMC South Side. One of few women in the field of orthopaedic surgery, she is assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

One of Dr. Wright’s main research interests has focused on aging athletes. She was the research coordinator for the 2005 Summer National Senior Games – The Senior Olympics, held in Pittsburgh. Since 2003, Dr. Wright has been looking at health research data related to Senior Olympians, with the hypothesis that athletes over age 40 who maintain high levels of functional capacity and quality of life throughout their life spans may be the best model of healthy aging, free from the variable of disuse. Such research findings may assist physicians in caring for seniors more effectively.

Dr. Wright’s research has been rewarded in the form of grants, numerous awards, peer-reviewed publications and international and national presentations. Her other research interests include muscle and tendon aging, gene therapy for the enhancement of bone healing, and osteoporosis in men.

She first came to Pitt in 1999 as an orthopaedic surgery resident. She had completed a research fellowship in Pitt’s Musculoskeletal Growth & Development Lab under the direction of Johnny Huard, Ph.D., and was one of only 10 residents to participate in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Clinician Scientist Development Program. Following the 2005 Summer Games, Dr. Wright completed a one-year Sports Medicine and Upper Extremity Fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Wheaton College, in Wheaton, Ill.; her master’s degree in oncology nursing from Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago, and her medical degree from thePritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Xiang's research interests focus primarily on differentiation of muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) and therapeutic application of genetically engineered MDSCs for the repair of cardiovascular damage post-myocardial infarction.

Ms. Zhu is exploring the role that myostatin (a negative regulator of muscle growth) plays in the process of muscle healing.