Anne Nichols
University of Rochester, NY·Physiology·Early-career
Tendons connect muscle to bone. They must heal after injury and grow stronger when used more, yet they often heal poorly.
- Fields
Physiology
Biomedical Engineering
Biology
- Topics
tendon
epitenon
progenitor cells
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- 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.
- Test whether epitenon cells and tenocytes must work together for tendons to adapt. Each population will be inducibly removed in mice before tendon loading.
- Determine whether disrupting communication between epitenon cells and tenocytes impairs the conversion of GLAST-lineage progenitors into tendon cells during load-driven tendon growth.
- Use voluntary wheel running in genetically engineered mice to model adaptive tendon growth and follow how epitenon-derived cells contribute to it.
More about the research
A thin outer layer called the epitenon is thought to help with both healing and adaptation. Its cells have been hard to study, however, because there was no genetic marker that singles them out.
Why it matters
Tendon injuries and poor adaptation to load are common problems. Knowing which cells rebuild tendon, and what signals guide them, could point to ways of using epitenon cells to improve tendon health and repair. This could eventually benefit people with acute tendon injuries or tendons that are under heavy strain.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nathaniel Dyment
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Biomedical Engineering
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.
Wenzheng Zhang
Albany Medical College, NY·Physiology
Identify and validate the unique molecular signature of Aqp2+ progenitor cells — kidney cells expressing the water channel Aquaporin-2 plus V-ATPase subunits B1 and B2 — using fluorescent-protein-based cell sorting and single-cell RNA sequencing.
Benjamin Levi
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Map lymphatic vessels around skeletal and heterotopic bone after injury in mice, and test whether blocking VEGFR3-driven lymphatic growth worsens heterotopic ossification.
The school
University of Rochester: 38 labs on PI Pages, $492M a year on research, 308 research doctorates a year.
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