Grace O'Connell, PhD

My research focuses on soft tissue mechanics of the intervertebral disc and articular cartilage.

We seek to understand how structural changes with age, injury, and degeneration affects mechanical behavior of these tissues, and mechanical failures occur in soft tissues of the musculoskeletal system.

We combine computational and experimental approaches to study joint- and tissue-level changes in mechanical behavior, including sub-failure and failure mechanics, and stress distributions with surrounding tissues.  This multi-scaled approach will advance our understanding of injury and degeneration, and improve development of biological repair strategies that can prevent progression of skeletal disease and improve the speed and success of skeletal tissue regeneration.

Interests: biomechanics, tissue engineering, musculoskeletal regeneration