Brian Wise Email & Phone Number

Throughout my education as a Biomedical Engineer, I have committed myself to studying the field of biomechanics. From this perspective, soft musculoskeletal tissues such as tendon, cartilage and fibrocartilage are remarkable. These tissues transmit significant magnitudes of force and experience large deformations in a time-dependent, nonlinear fashion. Moreover, the hierarchical organization of their structural anatomy yields emergent mechanical response across length scales. I have dedicated much of my graduate curriculum to studying continuum biomechanics, which provides a framework for relating these finite deformations to internal tissue stress at any length scale through application of nonlinear elastic, viscoelastic and poroelastic theory, and I continue to expand my knowledge in computationally applying these models through finite element analysis. Additionally, I have become proficient in mechanical testing of biological samples across configurations (compression, tension, shear), modes (ramp, stress-relaxation, creep, dynamic), and length scales from bulk, unconfined compression to microscale and nanoscale indentation with atomic force microscopy. This is evidenced by my Master's thesis research, where I helped to describe mechanical fortification of degenerated cartilage defects through application of a novel hyaluronic acid hydrogel capable of sealing the damaged surface and interdigitating with the native matrix to reinforce bulk tissue mechanics and restore mechanical integrity in the local microenvironment. More recently, my doctoral studies have fostered an intense interest in musculoskeletal mechanobiology, a field that seeks to describe the intimate relationship between biomechanics, cell biology and tissue homeostasis. As part of my ongoing Ph.D. research, I have developed a novel ex vivo model of insertional Achilles tendon impingement to study mechanobiology in compressed regions of tendon fibrocartilage. Using this model, I am working to rigorously characterize local changes in proteoglycan metabolism within multiaxial, spatially heterogeneous patterns of mechanical strain, particularly in areas of elevated transverse compressive strain that occur as a unique consequence of tendon impingement. The aim of this research is to provide keen insight into the role of mechanical impingement in the initiation and progression of a common, degenerative tendon disease known as tendinopathy, in this context insertional Achilles tendinopathy (IAT), for which current treatments remain inadequate.