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Jeffry Nyman

Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation
Research Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering


Biomedical Engineering (secondary)

Intellectual Neighborhoods

Research Focus

The ultimate goal of Nyman lab is to lower the number of bone fractures associated with osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, genetic diseases, and aging. Towards that end, we investigate ways to improve the clinical assessment of fracture risk and identify regulators of bone toughness (lack of brittleness). Using pre-clinical mouse models of disease with and without drug treatments, we also study how advanced glycation end-products, matrix proteins, transcription factors, and growth factors affect the mechanical properties of bone.

Current Projects

There are projects i) to determine whether matrix-bound water and pore water, as determined by 1H Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, can explain age- and diabetes-related decreases in bone’s resistance to fracture and ii) to identify the determinants of matrix-bound water, and iii) to develop Raman Spectroscopy techniques as useful clinical indicator of bone fragility.

Selected Publications

  1. Creecy A., Uppuganti S., Merkel A.R., O’Neal D., Makowski A.J., Granke M., Voziyan P., and J.S. Nyman. Changes in the fracture resistance of bone with the progression of type 2 diabetes in the ZDSD rat. Calcified Tissue International. 99:289-301, 2016.
  2. Nyman J.S., Merkel A.R., Uppuganti S., Nayak B., Rowland B., Makowski A.J., Oyajobi B.O., and J.A. Sterling. Combined treatment with a Transforming growth factor beta inhibitor (1D11) and Bortezomib improves bone architecture in a mouse model of myeloma-induced bone disease. Bone. 91:81-91, 2016.
  3. Uppuganti S., Granke M., Makowski A.J., Does MD, and J.S. Nyman. Age-related changes in the fracture resistance of male Fischer F344 Rat Bone. Bone. 83:220-32, 2016.
  4. Granke M., Makowski A.J., Uppuganti S., Does M.D., and J.S. Nyman. Identifying novel clinical surrogates to assess human bone fracture toughness. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. 30:1290-300, 2015.
  5. Makowski, A.J., Patil, C.A., Mahadevan-Jansen, A., and J.S. Nyman. Polarization control of Raman spectroscopy optimizes the assessment of bone tissue. Journal of Biomedical Optics. 18: 055005, 2013.