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Research
Cartilage Biology and Orthopaedics Branch
Senior Investigator
Phone: 301-451-6854
Building: 50, Room: 1523
E-mail: tuanr@mail.nih.gov
Rocky S. Tuan, Ph.D. received his bachelor's degree in Chemistry in 1972. He received his Ph.D. in 1977 from the Rockefeller University in New York, under the mentorship of the late Zanvil A. Cohn, M.D. His postdoctoral research fellowship was at Harvard Medical School in Boston, first with Melvin J. Glimcher, M.D. in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Children's Hospital, and then from 1978 to 1980 with Jerome Gross, M.D., in the Developmental Biology Laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1980, Dr. Tuan was appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1986. In 1988, Dr. Tuan joined Thomas Jefferson University, Phildelphia, to be the Director of Orthopaedic Research and Professor and later Vice Chairman in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery with a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. From 1992-1995, Dr. Tuan was the Academic Director of the M.D., Ph.D program at Jefferson, and in 1997, he established the nation's first Cell and Tissue Engineering Ph.D. program at Jefferson, with the mission of training the next generation of "cross-cultural" biomedical scientists committed to regenerative medicine and the development of functional tissue substitutes. In the fall of 2001, Dr. Tuan joined the Intramural Research Program of NIAMS as Chief of the newly created Cartilage Biology and Orthopaedics Branch.
Personal Interests
My interest in biological processes related to the skeletal tissues had its beginning in my Ph.D. work, where I analyzed the biochemical and developmental regulation of calcium transport and homeostasis during embryonic development, and its impact on skeletal development, using the chick embryo as an experimental system. My discovery of specific cell surface and cytosolic calcium-binding proteins in the chick embryonic chorioallantoic membrane and in human and mouse placentae provided significant and useful insights into how the maternofetal placental unit functions as the key calcium regulating tissue during embryonic and fetal development. During my postdoctoral years, I expanded my research interests into the cellular and molecular aspects of embryonic skeletogenesis. As an extramural investigator, my research activities, funded by the NIH and other federal agencies and private foundations, have focused on skeletal development, growth factor biology, bone-biomaterial interaction, cell-matrix interaction and signaling, cartilage tissue engineering, and the development of molecular diagnosis of infection and biodegradable drug delivery devices for orthopaedic application.
My overall view is that orthopaedic research is fundamentally a study of skeletal tissues and the biological activities that are important for their development, growth, function, and health. My laboratory is currently engaged in a variety of research projects focused on multiple aspects of skeletal and related biology.
Other NIAMS Affiliations
Developmental Biology SectionOrthopaedics Section
Tissue Engineering Section
Selected Publications
Nesti, L., Chang, R., McCann, T., Zapatero, J., Hoek, J., and Tuan, R.S. (2007) TGF-β1 calcium signaling in osteoblasts. J. Cell Biochem., In press.
Mauck, R.L., Martinez-Diaz, G.J., Yuan, X., and Tuan, R.S. (2006) Regional variation in meniscal fibrochondrocyte multi-lineage differentiation potential: Implications for meniscus repair. Anat. Rec. In press.
Li, W.j., Mauck, R.L., Cooper, J., Yuan, X., and Tuan, R.S. (2006) Engineering controllable anisotropy in electrospun biodegradable nanofibrous scaffolds for musculoskeletal tissue engineering. J. Biomech. In press
Cooper, J.A., Li, W.-j., Bailey, L.O., Hudson, S.D., Lin-Gibson, S., Anseth, K.S., Tuan, R.S., and Washburn, N.R. (2006) Encapsulated chondrocyte response in a pulsatile flow bioreactor. Acta Biomater. 3: 13-21.
Christenson, E.M., Anseth, K.S., van den Beuken, J.J.J.P., Chan, C.K., Ercan, B., Jansen, J.A., Laurencin, C.T.,, Li, W.-j., Murugan, R., Nair, L.S., Ramakrishna, S., Tuan, R.S., Webster, T.J., and Mikos, A.G. (2007) Nanomaterial applications in orthopaedics. J. Orthop. Res. 25:11-22.
