Biomechanics and Multimodal Tissue Imaging Core

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The Biomechanics and Multimodal Tissue Imaging (BMTI) Core is being proposed as a result of strategic restructuring of resources in the Center for Musculoskeletal Research (CMSR), in order to improve efficiency, accelerate the pace of research, and facilitate clinical translation of our NIH funded programs. As the research in the CMSR has moved in increasingly translational directions, including many animal models of orthopaedic injury and repair (e.g. arthritis, fracture healing, and allograft healing), there has been a compelling rationale for integrating histologic, tissue- and cell-based studies with longitudinal animal imaging and tissue biomechanical assessments, in pursuit of minimally-invasive outcome measures of healing and repair that can be translated from the bench to the bedside. The natural growth and success of the CMSR, the new initiative to increase collaborations between the CMSR and the Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Centers (MDCRC), the recent revamping up of our skeletal histopathology facilities, and the acquisition of state-of-the-art, sophisticated technologies through recent ARRA awards now necessitate the proposed organizational restructuring of our resources into separate Histology, Biochemistry and Molecular Imaging (HBMI) Core and Biomechanics and Mulfimodal Tissue Imaging (BMTI) Cores. This restructuring is sought to ensure the continued provision of efficient, high quality, histomorphometric, histologic, biomechanics, and in vivo imaging services to the investigators in the CMSR, such that the individual labs do not have to continually reproduce technical advances and modifications. Furthermore, the BMTI Core is designed to provide greater access of our large instrument fee for service Cores to unfunded physician scientists (UPS) and Research Assistant Professors (RAP) in our Core Center for Musculoskeletal Biology and Medicine (CCMBM). The Aims of the BMTI Core are to provide high quality, consistent, efficient and cost-effective anatomic imaging and biomechanical testing in small animal models of musculoskeletal trauma and disease; to enhance and refine imaging modalities and novel image processing algorithms to derive translational correlates of functional healing; and to provide affordable access for RAP and UPS to Core resources, and utilize their unique research expertise to train other investigators, staff, and trainees in the CCMBM. The approach we have chosen is designed to improve service to our funded investigators at the highest levels of efficiency and quality, and facilitate the advancement of our RAP and UPS to independence, establishing them as future leaders that could potentially be recruited by the top academic programs in the country.