Welcome to Payne Lab

Regenerative Medicine Approaches for Cartilage Injuries

Our research focuses on the development of regenerative medicine approaches for bone and cartilage tissues, with a particular interest in treating growth plate (physeal) cartilage injuries, which represent a significant clinical problem in children. Growth plate injuries can result in the formation of unwanted bony repair tissue across the cartilaginous growth plate, known as a “bony bar”. This bony bar can restrict local growth, leading to significant growth abnormalities, such as angular deformities or complete growth arrest. Our laboratory studies this important clinical problem at a mechanistic level, where we investigate the role of angiogenesis in bony repair tissue formation and develop therapies to target angiogenic and osteogenic pathways to prevent the development of the bony bar. At a translational level, we are developing biomaterial-based cartilage regeneration approaches that are augmented with stem cells and/or growth factors to mitigate bony bar formation and support sustained growth plate function and skeletal growth. These activities include the development of a 3D printed pediatric growth plate mimetic composite.

Projects