Dr. Joel Boerckel is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, and serves as Co-Director of the McKay Orthopaedic Research Laboratories and Director of the Biomechanics Core of the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders (PCMD). He earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and conducted postdoctoral training in vascular biology at the Cleveland Clinic. His laboratory aims to understand the molecular basis of mechanotransduction – how cells convert physical cues into biochemical signals that they can read. His team seeks to uncover the mechanisms by which mechanotransduction regulates cell motility and embryo morphogenesis, and to apply these discoveries to new regenerative therapies. He is passionate about building supportive scientific communities, accelerating science dissemination through preprints, and hippo signaling.

Lecture summary: Mechanical forces influence cell behavior through mechanotransduction and direct both the development of the skeleton and its repair after injury. In this talk, I will first explore how foetal movement and YAP/TAZ mechanotransduction influence skeletal morphogenesis. Next, I will share how our efforts to understand how mechanical forces influence bone fracture repair led us to the surprising discovery that the bone fracture site is not hypoxic, as long believed, but rather exhibits high oxygenation due to activation of local erythropoiesis in the fractured bone marrow.