“Every time you take a step, your cartilage acts like a shock absorber so your body can have pain-free movement,” says Lesley Chow (center top, with her team), the Frank Hook Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. But unlike bone, once cartilage gets damaged or worn down, it can’t heal itself. “And while there are some surgical interventions, you eventually hit a point where you’re in so much pain and have such a loss of mobility that you need a total knee replacement.”
Chow and her team are developing a biomaterial that will help promote the formation of cartilage that is organized in the same way as native tissue. Earlier this year, Chow received a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award for her research from the National Science Foundation.
In this episode, Chow talks about the role cartilage plays in the body, the novel approach her lab is taking to rebuild it, and why she’s so invested in helping others avoid living in pain.