Q. Who qualifies to apply to become a STRETCH Scholar?
A. Students who are part of UC LEADS may apply to become a STRETCH Scholar.
Q. How much is the stipend for this program?
A. Each STRETCH Scholar will receive a stipend at the beginning of the academic year for their two-year research experience ($12,000 total).
Q. Is there any funding for research expenses?
A. Each research project will receive $8,000 credit for musculoskeletal core services at CCMBM.
Q. When will participants be selected?
A. Participants will be selected after your home campus UC LEADS application review process. Mentors will be selected during February 2023.
Q. Who are the UC STRETCH contacts at each campus?
A. There are currently nine faculty mentors participating in the program:
Grace O'Connell
Campus: UC Berkeley
Research: soft tissue mechanobiology, specifically studying how the mechanical behavior of fiber reinforced tissues from the musculoskeletal system is changed with age and disease.
Research Focus: Tissue Engineering
Clare Yellowley-Genetos
Campus: UC Davis
Research: regulatory role of the bone microenvironment on both cell fate and function; in particular the influence of the mechanical environment and environmental oxygen availability on skeletal cells.
Research Focus: Molecular & Cell
Gabriela Loots
Campus: UC Davis/LLNL
Research: Animal models and cell-based tissue mimetric approaches to answer key questions in bone, cartilage, and caner. Developing treatments for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis traumatic bone injury, and preventing bone metastasis.
Research Focus: Molecular & Cell, Genomics
Olaronke Olabisi
Campus: UC Irvine
Research: biosynthetic materials, which combine synthetic and biological materials and can control cell and tissue function. Develop wound dressings that accelerate the healing of chronic diabetic wounds faster than normoglycemic wounds and combination seashell-synthetic biomaterials capable of directing bone formation in microscopic patterns.
Research Focus: Tissue Engineering
Karen Lyons
Campus: UC Los Angeles
Research: investigate the functions of secreted factors in skeletal development and postnatal maintenance. Elucidation of the functions and mechanisms of BMP and TGF-beta signaling pathways in cartilage and bone.
Research Focus: Molecular & Cell, Developmental
Jennifer Manilay
Campus: UC Merced
Research: influence of communication between bone and hematopoietic stem cells on immune cell fate decisions. Studies questions at the crossroads of developmental biology, stem cell bilogy and immunology.
Research Focus: Developmental Immunology
Nicole I. zur Neiden
Campus: UC Riverside
Research: utilizes pluripotent stem cell models as well as mouse and zebrafish models to study developmental bone formation (osteogenesis). Developed murine embryonic stem cell protocols for chondrogenic and osteogenic differentiation into matrix-secreting chondrocytes and mineralized osteoblasts respectively. Study normal and abnormal osteogenesis, including the molecular mechanisms that drive osteogenic fate or interfere with it.
Research Focus: Molecular & Cell
Kimberly Cooper
Campus: UC San Diego
Research: Evolution of developmental mechanisms that diversified the vertebrate limb musculoskeletal system. Genetic mechanisms that establish and vary skeletal proportion by controlling growth plate cartilage elongation rate and duration.
Research Focus: Developmental
Tamara Alliston
Campus: UC San Francisco
Research: crosstalk between biochemical and physical cues in the skeleton, identifying mechanisms by which they direct skeletal cell behavior and specify the material and mechanical properties of bone and cartilage in health, aging, and disease.
Research Focus: Molecular & Cell, Mechanobiology
