Dr. Kang is a past recipient of the highest societal awards for spinal research conferred by the leading international spine societies—the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS), the Cervical Spine Research Society (CSRS), and the North American Spine Society (NASS).

Joon Y. Lee, MD
Ferguson Laboratory for Orthopaedic and Spine Research

Dr. Lee specializes in cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine surgery in the greater Pittsburgh area. Dr. Lee graduated summa cum laude from University of California, Berkeley, and obtained his medical degree from Yale Medical School. He completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, PA. He completed his fellowship in spine surgery at the Rothman Institute-Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Lee performs spinal surgery using standard techniques and the latest cutting-edge surgical technologies. These include minimally invasive spine surgery, disc replacement, and microsurgical decompression. For certain spinal problems, these new techniques may allow faster recovery and eliminate the need for spinal fusion. Dr. Lee has been involved in research at the National Institutes of Health, Yale Medical School Research Laboratories, and the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. He has authored numerous articles and lectured extensively on topics such as cervical disc herniation, cervical myelopathy, cervical disc replacement, lumbar disc herniation, lumbar spinal stenosis, lumbar disc replacement, spinal fusion, spine trauma, microsurgical decompression, and non-fusion technologies. For more information you can go to: pittsburghspinesurgery.com.

Gwendolyn Sowa, MD, PhD

Dr. Gwendolyn Sowa received a PhD in Biochemistry in 1997 and a degree in medicine in 2000 from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. She completed her physical medicine and rehabilitation residency at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, Northwestern Medical School in 2004.

Gwendolyn Sowa, MD, PhD joined the University of Pittsburgh Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Orthopaedics in 2005 as an Assistant Professor.

She is Co-Director of the Ferguson Laboratory for Orthopaedic Research, and has an active research program investigating the role of mechanical forces in disc degeneration. Dr Sowa is an award winning researcher and has presented her findings at international conferences and symposia.

Nam Vo, PhD

Nam Vo received his PhD degree with Dr. Michael Chamberlin in Biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1998 and completed his Post-Doctoral training with Dr. Michael Lai at the University of Southern California in 2003. His Doctorate research involved detailed molecular analyses of the early stages of E. coli transcription. He continued his training by studying the mechanism and regulation of hepatitis C virus RNA replication, initially as a Postdoctoral Fellow and subsequently as an Assistant Specialist in Dr. Caroline Kane at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Vo also taught Introductory Microbiology at Contra Costa College in 2005-2006.

Dr. Vo joined the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery of UPMC as a Research Assistant Professor in 2006. He is currently working in the Ferguson Spine Research Laboratory to investigate the molecular and cellular processes responsible for intervertebral disc diseases, with special emphasis on understanding gene regulation of the major disc extracellular matrix constituents.

James H-C Wang, PhD
MechanoBiology Laboratory

Dr. James H-C. Wang is currently an Professor in the Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery, Bioengineering, and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He serves as the Director of the MechanoBiology Laboratory in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. Wang is also a Faculty Member at the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Wang received his Bachelor of Science in Solid Mechanics in 1982 and his Master of Science in Experimental Biomechanics in 1989 from Tongji University. After working for nine years at the same university, he came to the United States in 1991 and studied orthopaedic biomechanics at the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery of the Texas Tech Health Science Center. Then, he went to the University of Cincinnati (UC), pursuing his Ph.D. in bioengineering. He spent the next four years at the UC School of Medicine’s Cell Biology Department, where he studied cell mechanobiology. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins Medical School and Washington University in St. Louis, where he studied the molecular signaling pathways that lead to actin cytoskeletal remodeling of human endothelial cells in response to dynamic mechanical stretching conditions. Following his research fellowships at these two institutions, Dr. Wang took a faculty position in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1998 and has remained as a faculty member since then.

One of Dr. Wang’s major research interests is elucidating the developmental mechanisms of tendinopathy using in vitro and in vivo model systems and enhancing the biological, biochemical, and biomechanical properties of healing tendons and ligaments using functional tissue engineering approaches. In addition, he is interested in the cellular and molecular mechanisms of how mechanical forces are transmitted to cells and translated into anabolic or catabolic cellular responses. In recent years, Dr. Wang has been working on developing new biotechnological tools such as micropost force sensor arrays (MFSA) and cell traction force microscopy (CTFM) for basic cell mechanobiology studies.