10/15/2009    

The Bone Bioengineering Laboratory (BBL) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University was established in 1997. The goals of BBL is to:

- Educate students in performing advanced research in Bone Biomechanics and Bone Bioengineering;
- To apply basic engineering and biological principles to study microstructures and functions of bones
- To provide a collaborative research environment in biomedical engineering for undergraduate/graduate students.

The BBL has strong collaborative associations with the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Regional Bone Center at Helen Hayes Hospital, the Cellular Engineering Laboratory, and the Biomaterials and Interface Tissue Engineering Laboratory, the Laboratory for Intelligent Imaging and Neural Computing, and the Biomedical Imaging Laboratory in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the Department of Pathology of St. George's Hospital at the University of London, UK. The research at the BBL is mainly focused on following major areas in bone biomechanics and bioengineering:

- Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of In Vivo Trabecular Bone Response to Mechanical and Hormonal Stimulation
- In Vitro Bone Cells Studies in 2D and 3D Cultures
- Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of In Vivo Intervertebral Disc Response to Mechanical Loads
- 3D Image Analysis and Pattern Recognition for Modeling Trabecular Bone Microstructures
- Micromechanics of Cortical Bone