Event
BIOE Seminar: Is Regenerative Healing in the Intervertebral Disc Possible?
Friday, October 17, 2025
9:00 a.m.
A. James Clark Hall, Room #2121
Catherine Kuo
ckk@umd.edu
James C. Iatridis
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Is Regenerative Healing in the Intervertebral Disc Possible?
Abstract
Degenerated intervertebral discs (IVDs) and IVD herniation are commonly implicated in low back pain and disability with few minimally invasive treatments. Painful IVD degeneration is associated with structural disruption including herniation of nucleus pulposus tissues through annulus fibrosus defects. The talk will provide the audience with an understanding of the clinical, biomaterial, biomechanical, and biological factors in intervertebral disc herniation and describe strategies to promote repair and regeneration of annulus fibrosus defects. The talk will also describe a neonatal healing model that identifies important cellular and matrix factors important in annulus fibrosus regenerative healing.
Speaker Bio
James C. Iatridis, PhD is the Mount Sinai Endowed Chair in Orthopaedic Research, and Vice Chair for Research in Orthopaedics of the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City. James received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University, was a Post-doctoral Fellow in Orthopaedics at the University of Vermont, became Professor of Biomedical Engineering at University of Vermont, then moved to Mount Sinai in 2010. His research on prevention and treatment of painful intervertebral disc degeneration is published in over 200 papers. He was awarded the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the Berton Rahn Research Prize of the AO Foundation, and the North American Spine Society Henry Farfan Award in Basic Science Research, and the ORS Urist Award. Dr. Iatridis created 2 graduate degree programs in biomedical engineering, serves on editorial boards of multiple journals, previously Chaired the NIH SBSR study section, was inaugural Chair of the ORS Spine Section, is a past President of the ORS and a Fellow of the ORS, ICORS and AIMBE.
