Nathaniel Dyment
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Biomedical Engineering
Tendons connect muscle to bone, and when injured they heal slowly and poorly, often forming weak scar tissue or failing to reattach firmly to bone. These projects ask how tendon cells sense their mechanical environment, and which signaling pathways control healing, scarring and tendon-to-bone attachment.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Physiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
tendon healing
anterior cruciate ligament
ACL reconstruction
- Grants
- 3 known grants, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Measure how long the hedgehog pathway activator SAG is released from BiLDS scaffolds and whether it stays biologically active, using an in vitro release study.
- Test whether SAG delivered into bone tunnels after ACL reconstruction in rabbits drives progenitor cells to form fibrocartilage attachments, assessed by cryo-histomorphometry, mechanical testing and longitudinal MRI.
- Determine how Achilles tendinopathy disrupts tendon tensional balance across disease stages, using human tendinopathy tissue, a rat overuse model and mouse models.
- Define the mechanotransduction pathways behind tendon cells' two-phase response to loss of tension, and test how rehabilitative loading restores normal tension in the Achilles tendon.
- Determine whether injury-triggered mTORC1 signaling drives fibrovascular scar formation during tendon healing, using genetically modified mice and a surgical injury model.
- Test whether Stat3 mediates mTORC1's effects on extracellular matrix organization in healing tendons, combining mouse genetics, imaging and biomechanical testing.
More about the research
The aim is to turn that knowledge into treatments for ligament tears, overuse injuries and tendon damage, using surgical models in rabbits, rats and mice alongside human tendinopathy samples.
Why it matters
ACL tears, Achilles tendinopathy and other tendon injuries are common in athletes and active people and often lead to graft failure, chronic pain, rupture or post-traumatic osteoarthritis. A locally delivered hedgehog-activating drug could strengthen graft attachment and speed recovery after ACL surgery. Mapping the mechanical and mTORC1/Stat3 signals behind tendon damage and scarring could identify drug targets and guide rehabilitation alongside physical therapy and surgery.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Localized small molecule delivery to improve tendon-to-bone integration following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction
NIH · Sep 2024 – Jun 2029
Research Project 1
NIH · Feb 2023 – Dec 2027
The function of mTORC1/Stat3 signaling in the regulation of fibrovascular scar formation during tendon healing
NIH · Feb 2022 – Nov 2026
Closest labs
Anne Nichols
University of Rochester, NY·Physiology·Early-career
Build a spatial and time-course atlas of how GLAST-lineage epitenon progenitors and Scx-expressing tenocytes respond to load. The approach combines genetic lineage tracing in mice with integrated spatial and single-cell RNA sequencing.
Matthew B Fisher
North Carolina State University, NC·Biomedical Engineering
Determine how ACL reconstruction technique (epiphyseal, complete transphyseal or partial transphyseal, differing in how they cross the bone's growth plate) affects knee stability and joint degeneration at different stages of skeletal maturity, using a growing pig model.
Jennifer Puetzer
Virginia Commonwealth University, VA·Biomedical Engineering·Early-career
Evaluate how focal adhesion kinase (FAK), a contraction-signaling enzyme, and the stretch-activated ion channels TRPV4 and Piezo1 each contribute to hierarchical collagen fiber formation by ligament fibroblasts in static culture, by inhibiting or activating each pathway.
The school
University of Pennsylvania: 90 labs on PI Pages, $2.2B a year on research, 750 research doctorates a year.
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