b'Their initial work yielded their firstMotomi Enomoto-Iwamoto, PhD, collaborative paper in ScienceDDS, Professoralso is yielding Signaling in 2017 and a joint RO1success.grant from the National Institutes ofAnd, the grant awards are Health. Whats more, the enrichedsignificant. Dr. Ward and his team environment in the Department ofhave achieved more than $7 million Orthopaedics has led to the fundingin grant support since 2017. Our of an additional joint R-01 with Dr.group extends across the UMB Lederer, as well as two soon-to-becampus with Dr. Lederer in BioMet,The energy andfunded R-01 grants with Dr. StainsDr. Kontrogianni-Konstantopoulos and with Aikaterini Kontrogianni- in Biochemistry, and Stuart Martin, enthusiasm withinKonstantopoulos, PhD, ProfessorPhD, in Physiology, he explains.our research team isof Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. While grounded in basic science special. Combineddiscovery, these researchers with our individualCOLLABORATION IS KEY maintain a focus on identifying areas of expertise,Indeed, the collaborative researchnew ways to target disease and environment encountered by Dr.dysfunction. As a group, we are we have elevated theWard is designed to enhancealso starting to push into the research potentialinnovation and improve thebiology of aging in bone, skeletal researchers ability to attractmuscle, and the heart, he says. of our extendedThis effort was in its infancy when team far above thatresearch funding. Together, theDrs. Ward, Lederer and Stains were basic science research effort inasked to participate in the SOM which we couldOrthopaedics is bringing togetherFestival of Science in 2017. The have accomplishedunlikely collaborators solvingexcitement over feedback from complex problems that havethe Festival of Science external individually. This is aimplications far beyond any single committee has catalyzed our very exciting time. part of the human body. In thatefforts, says Dr Ward. We are regard, Dr Wards work with otherleveraging our initial findings intoChris W. Ward, PhD department facultyincluding Richard M. Lovering, PhD, PT,grant submissions early in 2020.Associate Professor; Masahiro Iwamoto, PhD, DDS, Professor; and Skeletal muscle fiber labeled for alpha tubulin (green) to identify microtubules and nuclei (blue).Dr. Ward and team discovered that the subset of tubulin modified by detyrosination (red) is responsible for how muscle fibers respond to mechanical stress to activate signaling pathways in muscle (Kerr et al, Nature Communications, 2015).Department of Orthopaedics 2019Annual Report31'