- Role collagen plays in bone health and fracture resistance
- Mechanically-mediated skeletal adaptation
- Combinatorial drug and mechanical therapeutics for defects and disease in bone
- Hierarchical structure/function relationships in cells, tissues and organs
Dr. Wallace's laboratory (Bone Biology and Mechanics Laboratory, BBML) is focused on understand how exogenous mechanical stimulation models impact cellular output, tissue quality, bone mass and fracture resistance as a function of age and disease state. They study how bone changes under different matrix-based disease states (e.g. osteogenesis imperfecta, osteoporosis, osteolathyrism), and use mechanical stimulation as a means to compensate for these changes. Trainees in the BBML will take a materials science approach towards studying the mechanical properties of bone at multiple hierarchical length scales, from the nanoscale structure of collagen and mineral to the whole bone at the macroscale.In vitro studies (fluid flow, substrate bending) compliment in vivo models of mechanical loading (treadmill running, tibial loading). Techniques including cell culture, qPCR, atomic force microscopy, microCT, Raman spectroscopy nanoindentation whole bone mechanical testing are routinely used.
Subject areas:
- Mechanobiology
- Pediatric Musculoskeletal Disease
