James C. Iatridis

Biography

Education

Postdoctoral Training, University of Vermont

PhD, Columbia University

 

 

Biography

 

Dr. Iatridis is Professor and Director of Spine Research in the Leni and Peter W. May Department of Orthopaedics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Dr. Iatridis graduated from Franklin and Marshall College with a B.A. in Physics, and then completed his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in Mechanical Engineering with Dr. Van C. Mow as his graduate mentor. Following his graduate studies, Dr. Iatridis was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation at the University of Vermont under the guidance of Dr. Ian Stokes. Dr. Iatridis became faculty in the School of Engineering at UVM in 1999, retaining a joint appointment in Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation, and going through promotion to full professor. He has also been Visiting Professor at the AO Research Institute in Davos Switzerland working with Mauro Alini and Adjunct Investigator at the Cartilage Biology and Orthopaedics Branch of the NIH in Bethesda, MD, working with Rocky Tuan.

Research

Dr. Iatridis’ research focus is on the development of early and minimally invasive treatments to prevent or repair injured and degenerated intervertebral discs.  He has investigated problems in the intervertebral disc since 1994, and has published over 60 papers in the field of orthopaedics. Dr. Iatridis received grants from the NIH, Whitaker Foundation, and AO Foundation. He was awarded a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) in 2008, and the Berton Rahn Research Prize of the AO Research Fund in 2009. Dr. Iatridis is very active in his research community having reviewed for over 20 journals and 6 funding agencies, he currently serves on the editorial board of 2 journals and as a member of the NIH Skeletal Biology Structure and Regeneration Study Section.

Our laboratory is interested in investigations of functional changes in the spine in response to loading and injury, and investigations of promising therapeutic techniques to promote spine health and repair. Our investigations span biomechanics, mechanobiology, tissue engineering, anti-inflammatory and cellular therapies. Through our animal, cell, and organ culture studies we have a focus on models of injury and repair with high relevance to human clinical conditions. Our research balances exploration of fundamental mechanisms and translation with appreciation for the development and maturation processes in human joints that promote health and disease processes.  

Honors & Awards

 

Berton Rahn Research Prize of the AO Research Fund, June 20, 2009

 

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), December 19, 2008

 

Hansjoerg Wyss Foundation Poster Presentation Award, ECM VI, Davos, CH, 2005

 

Macnab LaRocca Fellowship Award, International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine, 2001

 

Publications

 

Iatridis JC, Mente PL, Stokes IAF, Aronsson DD, Alini M: Compression induced changes to intervertebral discs properties in a rat tail model, Spine, 24:996-1002, 1999.

MacLean JJ, Roughley PJ, Monsey RD, Alini M, Iatridis JC: In vivo intervertebral disc remodeling: kinetics of mRNA expression in response to a single loading event, J Orthop Res, 2008 May;26(5):579-88. PMID: 18176944.

Wuertz K, Godburn K, MacLean JJ, Barbir A, Stinnett-Donnelly J, Roughley PJ, Alini M, Iatridis JC: In vivo remodeling of intervertebral discs in response to short and long term dynamic compression, J Orthop Res, 2009 Sep;27(9):1235-42. PMID: 19274755.

Iatridis JC, Setton LA, Rawlins BA, Foster RJ, Weidenbaum M, Mow VC: Degeneration affects the anisotropic and nonlinear behaviors of human anulus fibrosus in compression, J Biomechanics 31:535-544, 1998

Iatridis JC, Weidenbaum M, Setton LA, Mow VC: Is the nucleus pulposus a solid or fluid? Mechanical behaviors of the nucleus pulposus of the human intervertebral disc, Spine  21:1174-1184, 1996.

Costi JJ, Stokes IA, Gardner-Morse M, Laible JP, Scoffone HM, Iatridis JC: Direct measurement of intervertebral disc maximum shear strain in six degrees of freedom: Motions that place disc tissue at risk of injury. J Biomechanics, 2007; 40(11):2457-66. Epub 2007 Jan 2. PMID: 17198708.

Lee CR, Iatridis JC, Poveda L, Alini M: In vitro organ culture of the bovine intervertebral disc: effects of vertebral endplate and potential for mechanobiology studies. Spine, 2006 Mar 1; 31(5):515-22. PMID: 16508544.

Korecki CL, Costi JJ, Iatridis JC: Needle puncture injury affects intervertebral disc mechanics and biology in an organ culture model, Spine, 2008 Feb 1; 33(3):235-41. PMID: 18303454.

Korecki CL, Taboas JM, Tuan RS, Iatridis JC: Notochordal cell conditioned medium stimulates mesenchymal stem cell differentiation towards a potentially young nucleus pulposus phenotype, Stem Cell Research and Therapy, 2010 Jun 16; 1(2):18. PMID: 20565707.

Michalek AJ, Buckley MR, Bonassar LJ, Cohen I, Iatridis JC: Measurement of local strains in intervertebral disc anulus fibrosus tissue under dynamic shear: Contributions of matrix fiber orientation and elastin content, J Biomechanics, 2009 Oct 16; 42(14):2279-85. Epub 2009 Aug 6.PMID: 19664773.