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Jeffry Nyman

Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Professor of Biomedical Engineering


Biomedical Engineering

Intellectual Neighborhoods

Research Focus

The ultimate goals of the Nyman Lab are to lower the number of bone fractures associated with osteoporosis, diabetes, hypertension, cancer, genetic diseases, and aging and to prevent delays in union (or non-union) when fractures do occur in patients with these co-morbidities. Towards that end, we investigate ways to improve the clinical assessment of fracture risk and identify regulators of bone toughness (lack of brittleness). Analyzing bones from cadavers and from pre-clinical mouse models of disease, we also study how non-enzymatic, glycation-mediated post-translational modifications, matrix proteins, transcription factors, and growth factors affect the fracture resistance of bone.

Current Projects

There are projects i) to identify matrix-related factors affecting bound water in bone, ii) to establish new imaging markers for the diagnosis of osteoporosis,  and iii) to develop Raman Spectroscopy techniques as a useful clinical indicator of bone fragility.

Selected Publications

  1. S. Uppuganti, T. Ketsir, Y. Zhang, M.D. Does, and J.S. Nyman. HR-pQCT parameters of the distal radius correlate with the bending strength of the radial diaphysis. Bone. 161: 116429, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2022.116429
  2. R. Ahmed, S. Uppuganti, S. Derasari, J., J. Pennings, F. Elefteriou, and J.S. Nyman. Identifying Bone Matrix Impairments in a Mouse Model of NF1 by Clinically Translatable Techniques. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research. 37(8):1603-1621, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/jbmr.4633
  3. T. Ketsiri, S. Uppuganti, K.D. Harkins, D.F. Gochberg, J.S. Nyman, and M.D. Does. Finite Element Analysis of Bone Mechanical Properties using MRI-derived Bound and Pore Water Concentration Maps. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering. https://doi.org/10.1080/10255842.2022.2098016  
  4. K.D. Harkins, T. Ketsiri, J.S. Nyman, and M.D. Does. Fast Bound and Pore Water Mapping of Cortical Bone with Arbitrary Slice Orientated 2D UTE. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 89(2):767-773, 2023. http://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.29484   
  5. T.L. Willett, P. Voziyan, and J.S. Nyman. Causative or Associative: A Critical Review of the Role of Advanced Glycation End-products in Bone Fragility. Bone. 163: 116485, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2022.116485