Scott Wood, Ph.D., assistant professor of
nanoscience and nanoengineering at South Dakota Mines, has won a highly
prestigious National
Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for his work to study the causes of osteoarthritis
and to build foundational knowledge needed to someday reverse the progression
of the disease.
Osteoarthritis most often occurs in the hands, hips,
and knees and can affect senior citizens and those who engage in repeated tasks
or manual labor. Osteoarthritis develops when the cartilage inside a joint
begins to break down, causing pain, stiffness, and swelling. “Professional
athletes, soldiers, law enforcement personnel, even mail carriers are all at
much greater risk because of the excessive loading they put on their joints,”
says Wood. Millions of adults in the United States suffer from osteoarthritis,
and current treatments offer little more than temporary pain control.
Wood and members of his research team pioneered and
patented breakthrough technology, called CellWell, which enables
the study of cartilage cells in a way that partially mimics their natural state.
When combined with powerful scientific instruments including a lattice
light-sheet microscope and an atomic force microscope, the CellWell
technology allows researchers to observe and test cartage cells in new ways. This
unique combination of tools offers insights into the causes of osteoarthritis
that were impossible before.
This project is jointly funded by NSF’s Biomechanics
and Mechanobiology Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research (EPSCoR). The preliminary research that led to this patented
technology and NSF CAREER Award was funded by the South Dakota Governor’s
office and Board of Regents.
“The research funding from the state was absolutely
essential in getting our work to this point. Without this initial funding we
would not be seeing this level of success today,” says Wood.
The NSF website states, “This project will advance the
knowledge base in cellular vibrational analysis, molecular tensegrity, and
cellular mechanobiology and establish [Dr. Wood’s] long-term career at the
intersection of nanoscience, nanoengineering, and biomedical engineering.”
“Congratulations to Dr. Wood for this monumental
achievement. His world-class research and his effort to inspire the next
generation of STEM professionals deserves the highest praise. He is one of many
researchers we are proud to have at Mines who are advancing the frontier of
innovation,” says Mines President Jim Rankin, Ph.D.
The NSF describes the CAREER award as the “most
prestigious award in support of early-career faculty who have the potential to
serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in
the mission of their department or organization.”
Wood is one of four faculty at Mines to win an NSF
Career Award since 2015 and the second to win in the university’s Department of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering this year.
“Winning two CAREER awards in the same year in nanoscience
and nanoengineering is exceptional and shows the outstanding work of every
individual in the department,” says Rankin.
Dancing Cells:
Understanding the Mechanisms of Osteoarthritis
Cartilage is part of the shock absorbing system of
the body. It protects joints and allows some cushion when doing activities like
walking or running. Past research has shown that cartilage likes exercise in
the right amounts; cartilage tissue responds favorably to rhythmic motion
within a Goldilocks Zone. “Too little force is bad for these cells and too much
force is bad for these cells; they like it just right in the middle,” says
Wood.
Wood is trying to understand any links between the
motion and the health of the cell. Part of his research looks at molecules
called “integrins” that he describes as the “hands of the cell” which act as physical
connectors that extend from the outside of the cell and connect to moving
structures on the inside. “If you pull or push on the outside of one of these
molecules, it gets sent down the chain to the inside of the cell and vice versa.
In some cases, we believe that this motion can change the cell’s behavior,”
says Wood. “We tend to think of cells as static things you might look at in a
book, but in reality, they move quite a lot.”
Using powerful microscopes in new ways, Wood and his
team found that the internal skeleton of cartilage cells “dance” and the dance
of the cells changes when they are treated with drugs that mimic
osteoarthritis. Previous work in the field has established that cartilage cells
respond in ways that improve cartilage health when the tissue is stimulated
with moderate levels of cyclically applied (i.e., dynamic) force, whereas they
respond by breaking the tissue down when the same level of force is applied and
held constant (i.e., static). The reason for that different response to static
and dynamic force is not understood, and the frequencies tested previously have
always been chosen arbitrarily rather than based on anything the cells
themselves are doing.
Wood’s ongoing work aims to determine how much static
force cartilage cells can sustain before the cells show signs of stress. He
will also work to build an apparatus that can apply rhythmic forces to the
cells in frequencies that mimic the “dance” of healthy cells to determine
whether the motion from that dance is responsible for the preference of the
cells for forces that are applied dynamically. This will be done using electromagnets
targeting the outer surface of the cells. Finally, Wood will also study the
“hands of the cell” and their relationship to other structures on the cellular
surface to determine the impact that pre-stretching those molecules may have on
the ability of the cells to respond to motion.
“Osteoarthritis is a really complicated disease -
there are several different pathways that can lead to its development. We know
that cartilage cells are mechanically sensitive, but we really don’t understand
the ins and outs of that sensitivity at the molecular level, and we aren’t
likely to find a cure or even an effective treatment for this disease until we
first understand more about these relationships,” says Wood.
The Drumbeat of Dancing
Cells: Inspiring the Next Generation
Inspiring and educating students and future STEM
professionals is an important part of any NSF CAREER Award. Wood’s educational
outreach will target college students by creating research opportunities for both
undergraduates and graduate students, joined with outreach specific to students
at local tribal colleges.
Wood is also planning hands-on summer camp
activities for middle and high school students that could include education
relating traditional Lakota concepts of rhythms in drumbeats and dancing being
important for health to the rhythms of the “dancing” cartilage cells being
tested in this project. Wood will work with tribal elders to help teach
cutting-edge scientific principles that can be shared in the classroom setting
by tying them into Lakota worldviews and culture alongside hands-on activities
like drum making. “I want to put a few beats together to help the students hear
and conceptualize the difference between the dances of healthy and arthritic
cartilage cells and have them develop their own drum-based story connecting
rhythms with health and disease based on what they hear from the cells in our
lab,” says Wood.
On top of his work with university and older K-12
students, Wood will also reach younger K-12 Native American students by working
alongside award-winning Hunkpapa Lakota children’s book author Jessie Taken
Alive-Rencountre of Rapid City, SD, from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and
illustrator Erin Walker-Jensen of Ft. Yates, ND, who grew up on the Standing
Rock Reservation. The goal is to incorporate his work into culturally and
scientifically age-appropriate books for young (3rd-5th grade) and very young
(K-2) Lakota students explaining what cells are and how they work within the
context of teaching them about the healing power of drums and music in Native
American tribal culture.
“In researching children’s books on cells, we could
not find any that targeted kindergarten students,” says Wood. “We hope this
effort will fill that gap and inspire future generations, especially in
populations within our region that are underrepresented in STEM fields.”