Faculty members in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery’s Musculoskeletal Research Center seek to create and discover treatments, techniques, and devices that improve care for patients with a wide range of musculoskeletal disorders. Cellular, molecular, and biomechanical research is the major focus of our laboratories, with a special emphasis on regenerative medicine.

Our faculty study a range of topics in musculoskeletal biology, disease, injury, and regeneration, including osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, bone biology, cartilage biology, and fracture healing. Our ultimate goal is to improve the healing and regeneration of musculoskeletal tissues using stem cells, biomaterials, and novel factors. We also study the mechanisms that lead to joint degeneration in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis with the ultimate goal of developing new therapeutics strategies to slow these processes.

Interdisciplinary Orthopedic Research Opportunities

Within our laboratories, faculty, fellows, residents, medical students, visiting scholars, and graduate and undergraduate students can conduct interdisciplinary research in tissue and cellular biomechanics, regeneration, and repair. Our laboratories are located in three sites in Manhattan: in the Bioengineering Institute at 433 First Avenue, at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital at 301 East 17th Street, and in the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine at 540 First Avenue.

Our facilities house a material testing laboratory, a biomechanical laboratory, a biomarker laboratory, cell and molecular biology laboratories, a histology laboratory, tissue culture facilities, and a microscopy laboratory.

We are led by 6 full-time faculty members and have more than 20 staff members, residents, students, and fellows on site. Our collaborators include researchers in NYU Langone’s Department of Cell Biology, Department of Medicine—especially its Division of Rheumatology—and Department of Radiology, as well as NYU College of Dentistry and NYU Tandon School of Engineering.

Our Faculty

Led by Philipp Leucht, MD, PhD, faculty in the Musculoskeletal Research Center conduct cutting-edge research projects to enable more effective bone-healing treatments and strategies for cartilage repair.

Philipp Leucht, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Departments of Orthopedic Surgery and Cell Biology
Director of Research, Department of Orthopedic Surgery

Alesha B. Castillo, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery

Thorsten Kirsch, PhD
Professor, Departments of Orthopedic Surgery and Cell Biology

Chuanju Liu, PhD
Professor, Departments of Orthopedic Surgery and Cell Biology

Peter S. Walker, PhD
Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery

Michael N. Wosczyna, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Orthopedic Surgery

Contact Us

For more information about the Musculoskeletal Research Center, contact Jessica Meng at jessica.meng@nyulangone.org or 212-598-6389.