Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Robert Mauck is the Mary Black Ralston Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Professor of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Director of the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory and the Biomechanics Core of the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders. Dr. Mauck co-directs the Program in Musculoskeletal Regeneration in the Penn Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Mauck is also a Research Health Scientist at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center, and co-Director of the Translational Musculoskeletal Research Center (TMRC) at the VA. Dr. Mauck obtained his undergraduate degrees in Biochemistry and Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University (1998), and completed his PhD at Columbia in the Cellular Engineering and Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Laboratories under the direction of Dr. Clark Hung and Dr. Gerard Ateshian (2003). After postdoctoral studies (2003-2005) at the National Institutes of Health with Dr. Rocky Tuan, Dr. Mauck moved to the University of Pennsylvania where he has since developed a new research program in the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory. His group focuses on the engineering of musculoskeletal tissues, with a particular interest in restoring articular cartilage, the knee meniscus, and the intervertebral disc. Dr. Mauck’s team uses rigorous mechanical and molecular analyses to characterize native tissue structure and function and employs this information to enhance the functional properties of engineered constructs through focused technology development. Specifically, this work employs adult mesenchymal stem cells, custom mechanobiologic culture conditions, and novel cell scaffolding technologies, and spans in vitro systems to large animal models. This work is supported with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as several private foundations. Dr. Mauck is a member of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS), and the International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS), and has published more than 190 manuscripts in the field of orthopaedic tissue engineering and mechanobiology.

Selected Publications

Mauck R L, Soltz M A, Wang C C, Wong D D, Chao P H, Valhmu W B, Hung C T, Ateshian G A: Functional tissue engineering of articular cartilage through dynamic loading of chondrocyte-seeded agarose gels. Journal of biomechanical engineering 122 (3): 252-60,2000.

Mauck R L, Yuan X, Tuan R S: Chondrogenic differentiation and functional maturation of bovine mesenchymal stem cells in long-term agarose culture. Osteoarthritis and cartilage / OARS, Osteoarthritis Research Society 14 (2): 179-89,2006.

Nerurkar Nandan L, Elliott Dawn M, Mauck Robert L: Mechanics of oriented electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for annulus fibrosus tissue engineering. Journal of orthopaedic research : official publication of the Orthopaedic Research Society 25 (8): 1018-28,2007.

Baker Brendon M, Gee Albert O, Metter Robert B, Nathan Ashwin S, Marklein Ross A, Burdick Jason A, Mauck Robert L: The potential to improve cell infiltration in composite fiber-aligned electrospun scaffolds by the selective removal of sacrificial fibers. Biomaterials 29 (15): 2348-58,2008.

Huang Alice H, Motlekar Nuzhat A, Stein Ashley, Diamond Scott L, Shore Eileen M, Mauck Robert L: High-throughput screening for modulators of mesenchymal stem cell chondrogenesis. Annals of biomedical engineering 36 (11): 1909-21,2008.

Erickson I E, Huang A H, Sengupta S, Kestle S, Burdick J A, Mauck R L: Macromer density influences mesenchymal stem cell chondrogenesis and maturation in photocrosslinked hyaluronic acid hydrogels. Osteoarthritis and cartilage / OARS, Osteoarthritis Research Society 17 (12): 1639-48,2009.

Nerurkar Nandan L, Baker Brendon M, Sen Sounok, Wible Emily E, Elliott Dawn M, Mauck Robert L: Nanofibrous biologic laminates replicate the form and function of the annulus fibrosus. Nature materials 8 (12): 986-92,2009.

Ionescu Lara C, Lee Gregory C, Sennett Brian J, Burdick Jason A, Mauck Robert L: An anisotropic nanofiber/microsphere composite with controlled release of biomolecules for fibrous tissue engineering. Biomaterials 31 (14): 4113-20,2010.

Huang Alice H, Stein Ashley, Mauck Robert L: Evaluation of the complex transcriptional topography of mesenchymal stem cell chondrogenesis for cartilage tissue engineering. Tissue engineering. Part A 16 (9): 2699-708,2010.

Nathan Ashwin S, Baker Brendon M, Nerurkar Nandan L, Mauck Robert L: Mechano-topographic modulation of stem cell nuclear shape on nanofibrous scaffolds. Acta biomaterialia 7 (1): 57-66,2011.

Baker Brendon M, Shah Roshan P, Huang Alice H, Mauck Robert L: Dynamic tensile loading improves the functional properties of mesenchymal stem cell-laden nanofiber-based fibrocartilage. Tissue engineering. Part A 17 (9-10): 1445-55,2011.

Ducheyne Paul, Mauck Robert L, Smith Douglas H: Biomaterials in the repair of sports injuries. Nature materials 11 (8): 652-4,2012.

Erickson Isaac E, Kestle Sydney R, Zellars Kilief H, Farrell Megan J, Kim Minwook, Burdick Jason A, Mauck Robert L: High mesenchymal stem cell seeding densities in hyaluronic acid hydrogels produce engineered cartilage with native tissue properties. Acta biomaterialia 8 (8): 3027-34,2012.

Baker Brendon M, Shah Roshan P, Silverstein Amy M, Esterhai John L, Burdick Jason A, Mauck Robert L: Sacrificial nanofibrous composites provide instruction without impediment and enable functional tissue formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109 (35): 14176-81,2012.

Fisher Matthew B, Mauck Robert L: Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine: recent innovations and the transition to translation. Tissue engineering. Part B, Reviews 19 (1): 1-13,2013.

Burdick Jason A, Mauck Robert L, Gorman Joseph H, Gorman Robert C: Acellular biomaterials: an evolving alternative to cell-based therapies. Science translational medicine 5 (176): 176ps4,2013.

Fisher Matthew B, Mauck Robert L: Starting with form, emerging with function: nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering of orthopedic tissues. Nanomedicine (London, England) 8 (4): 505-8,2013.

Qu Feini, Lin Jung-Ming G, Esterhai John L, Fisher Matthew B, Mauck Robert L: Biomaterial-mediated delivery of degradative enzymes to improve meniscus integration and repair. Acta biomaterialia 9 (5): 6393-402,2013.

Bian Liming, Guvendiren Murat, Mauck Robert L, Burdick Jason A: Hydrogels that mimic developmentally relevant matrix and N-cadherin interactions enhance MSC chondrogenesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110 (25): 10117-22,2013.

Han Woojin M, Heo Su-Jin, Driscoll Tristan P, Smith Lachlan J, Mauck Robert L, Elliott Dawn M: Macro- to microscale strain transfer in fibrous tissues is heterogeneous and tissue-specific. Biophysical journal 105 (3): 807-17,2013.

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Academic Contact Information

McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratory
308A Stemmler Hall
3450 Hamilton Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6081
Phone: 215-898-8653