Gunes Uzer heads a team that received a $133,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for a study, “Replicating Marrow Mechanics of Stem Cells Ex vivo.”
The study will provide a method for studying the effect of physiological loading and its consequences on mesenchymal stem cell function and fate. Mesenchymal stem cells make the specialized cells found in the skeletal tissues.
Along with Uzer, the research team includes Trevor Lujan, an associate professor of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering in the College of Engineering, David Estrada, an assistant professor in the Micron School of Materials Science and Engineering, and Julia Thom Oxford, a professor of biological sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, all from Boise State, as well as Mary C. Farach-Carson, the Ralph and Dorothy Looney professor of biochemistry and cell biology at Rice University in Houston, Texas.
Gunes and Oxford received a previous $37,000 NASA grant in 2017 to research the effects on human beings of long-term space travel and gravity-free environments.