Washington University in St. Louis (WU)
When fracture healing fails, atrophic nonunion fractures can form. The failure in biology causing atrophic nonunion fracture formation is not well known. In order to learn why fracture healing fails, the Silva lab uses a transgenic mouse model where proliferating periosteal progenitor cells are ablated, leading to atrophic nonunion fractures forming, which are characterized by a lack of callus formation. Learning more about the role of proliferation of these cells and using this knowledge to develop a tissue regeneration therapy for atrophic nonunion fractures is the focus of my research.