Farshid Guilak, PhD, MS
Mildred B. Simon Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery
- Phone: 314-362-7239
- Email: guilak@nospam.wustl.edu
Research Interest
Prevention / Control
Category(ies) of Research
Basic
Translational
Descriptor of Research
Dr. Guilak’s research program focuses on osteoarthritis (OA), a painful and debilitating disease of the synovial joints that affects over 27 million people in the United States. His laboratory uses a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to investigate the role of biomechanical and biological factors in the onset and progression of OA, with a particular emphasis on the development of new molecular and cell-based therapies. OA is a complex, multifaceted family of diseases that have a similar endpoint – pain and disability due to the degeneration of the joints. Many risk factors have been associated with this disease, such as aging, obesity, diabetes, and joint injury. A major focus of the laboratory has been to investigate the influence of obesity and diabetes on biology of chondrocytes and other cells of the joint, under normal or abnormal conditions. The laboratory has taken an interdisciplinary approach to study the disease at all different scales, ranging from clinical studies of joint loading, weight loss, nutrition, and exercise in people with or without OA, to the development of various animal models of OA, to tissue-level models of cartilage physiology and pathology under mechanical loading, and down to the cellular and subcellular levels to understand the transduction pathways involved in mechanical signaling. In particular, the group has been working on cell and gene therapies that have been shown to reverse characteristics of diabetes by targeting muscle or fatty acids. Dr. Guilak is also collaborating with other investigators on the development of stem cell-based therapies for diabetes.