Events Calendar

Speaker: Dr. Lawrence J. Bonassar

Title: All Mechanics Is Local: Using Fast Confocal Elastography to Understand Cartilage Mechanics and Mechanobiolog

Abstract: Diseases of cartilage are the most common causes of disability in the developed world. In all its forms, the role of cartilage is entirely mechanical – supporting loads, protecting adjacent tissues, and providing a nearly frictionless surface for joint articulation. Despite having little innate capacity for self-repair, cartilage endures more than 3 million loading cycles per year at stresses of ~20 MPa with little damage or wear over decades of use. This talk will explore the molecular origins of the remarkably mechanics of cartilage using fast confocal microscopy techniques, combined with vibrational microspectroscopy to quantify structure-property relationships on the microscale. We extend these techniques to examine the relationship between cellular response and mechanical environment on the microscale, revealing key thresholds for bioenergetic failure, apoptosis, and cell death. Lastly, we apply machine learning techniques to understand distinct cellular phenotypes in response to cartilage injury. These results give new insights into the behavior of this remarkable tissue and mechanisms of disease initiation.

Bio: Dr. Bonassar is the Daljit S. and Elaine Sarkaria Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. He received his BS from the Johns Hopkins University and SM and PhD degrees from MIT. He joined the faculty at Cornell in 2003 and was one of the founding members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, serving as Associate Chair from 2005-2014. Dr. Bonassar’s research focuses on cartilage biomechanics and tissue engineering. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed manuscripts that have been cited more than 20,000 times. His work has been featured in the Washington Post and New York Times, National Geographic’s Explorers, BBC’s Horizons, CBS’s Sunday Morning, and CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS.