Congratulations to our amazing advisor Professor Clark T. Hung on receiving a $38.95 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to build a living knee replacement from biomaterials and human stem cells, including a patient’s own cells!

The award, part of the ARPA-H’s Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis (NITRO) program, will support the development of NOVAJoint, a revolutionary biocompatible, low-cost, patient-specific knee joint replacement. This high-risk project builds upon more than two decades of collaborative musculoskeletal research at Columbia in engineering and medicine, and promises to offer a transformative solution for the more than thirty million people in the U.S. who suffer from osteoarthritis.

The project team is multidisciplinary, with scientific leadership from faculty in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Orthopedic Surgery, and Dental Medicine. The scientific and clinical faculty at Columbia include:

  • Clark Hung, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopedic Sciences (in Orthopedic Surgery)

  • Nadeen Chahine, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering (in Orthopedic Surgery)

  • Gerard Ateshian, Andrew Walz Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering

  • Alice Huang, Associate Professor of Bioengineering (in Orthopedic Surgery)

  • Treena Arinzeh, Professor of Biomedical Engineering

  • Chang Lee, Associate Professor of Craniofacial Engineering (in Dental Medicine) 

  • Roshan Shah, Russell A. Hibbs Associate Professor and Director of Complex Reconstruction at Columbia University

  • Kam Leong, Samuel Y. Sheng Professor of Biomedical Engineering (in Systems Biology)

  • Helen Lu, Percy K. and Vida L.W. Hudson Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Senior Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs and Advancement 

  • X. Edward Guo, Stanley Dicker Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Medical Sciences (in Medicine)

  • José McFaline-Figueroa, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering

  • Samuel Sia, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Vice Provost for the Fourth Purpose and Strategic Impact

  • Steve Thomopoulos, Robert E. Carroll and Jane Chace Carroll Laboratories Professor of Biomechanics (in Orthopaedic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering) 

  • Elan Goldwaser, Assistant Professor of Sports Medicine (in the Center for Family and Community Medicine, in Medicine and Orthopedic Surgery) at CUIMC

  • Mildred Embree, Dr. Edwin S. Robinson Associate Professor of Dental Medicine

  • Joanna Smeeton, H.K. Corning Assistant Professor Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine Research (in Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine) (in Genetics and Development)