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Educational Background:
Areas of Research Interest: Our laboratory investigates the relationship between whole body level skeletal loading and local micromechanical tissue deformations at the osteocyte lacuna level and how this relationship changes with aging and/or disease. We are also investigating the mechanical and biological response of osteocytes to mechanical stimulation in vitro. Our laboratory is also developing sophisticated engineering models used to predict the probability of cervical spine injury for the US Navy. This area of research synthesizes a number of unique, advanced engineering capabilities into a verified and validated probabilistic parametric finite element model of the human cervical spine. Another area of research is focused on predicting the risk of bone fracture in individuals from ubiquitous clinical diagnostic imaging data such as DXA. The research area utilizes novel parametric finite element modeling techniques in combination with new bone constitutive material models and probabilistic analysis methods. Our group also collaborates with the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research to investigate the role of genes in controlling bone properties and bone structure and, ultimately, bone strength. Our group regularly collaborates with faculty from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, University of Texas at San Antonio, The Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Case Western Reserve University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Medical College of Wisconsin, University of Virginia, and University of Melbourne (Australia). Selected Publications: Bonivtch, A.R., Bonewald, L.F., and Nicolella, D.P.: Tissue strain at the osteocyte lacuna: a microstructural finite element model. Journal of Biomechanics, 40(10), 2199-206, 2007. Ni, Q.; Nyman, J. S.; Wang, X.; De Los Santos, A.; Nicolella, D.P.: Assessment of water distribution changes in human cortical bone by nuclear magnetic resonance. Measurement Science and Technology,18(3), 715-723, 2007. Barragan-Adjemian, C., Nicolella, D.P., Dusevich, V., Dallas, M.R., Eick, J.D., and BonewaldL.F.: Mechanism by Which MLO-A5 Late Osteoblast/Early Osteocytes Mineralize in Culture: Similarities with Mineralization of Lamellar Bone. Calcified Tissue International, 79 (5): 340-353, 2006. Chan, K.S., Lee, Y-D, Nicolella, D.P., Furman, B.r., Wellinghoff, S., and Rawls, R.: Improfving fracture toughness of dental nanocomposites by interface engineering and micromechanics. Engineering Fracture Mechanics, accepted, 2006. "Osteocyte Lacunae Tissue Strain in cortical Bone," D.P. Nicolella, D.E. Moravits, A.M. Gale, L.F. Bonewald and J. Lankford, Journal of Biomechanics, 39, 1735-1743, 2006. D.P. Nicolella, B.H. Thacker, H. Katoozian, and D.T. Davy: The Effect of Three Dimensional Shape Optimization on the Probabilistic Response of a Cemented Femoral Hip Prosthesis. Journal of Biomechanics, 39 1265-1278, 2006. D.P. Nicolella, L.F. Bonewald, D.E. Moravits, J. Lankford: Measurement of Microstructural Strain in Cortical Bone. European Journal of Morphology, 42(1/2), 23-29, 2005. Thacker, B.H., Enright, M.P., Nicolella, D.P., Riha, D.S., Huyse, L.J., Waldhart, W.J., Fitch: "Applications of Reliability Assessment," CRC Engineering Design Reliability Handbook S.HK., Accepted for publication, 2005. E. Nikolaidis and D.M. Ghiocel (eds). Do-Gyoon Kim, J.B. Brunski and D.P. Nicolella: Microstrain Fields for Critical Bone in Uniaxial Tension: Optical Analysis Method. Journal of Engineering in Medicine, Part H, 219(2), 119-128, 2005. Q. Ni and D.P. Nicolella: The characterization of human cortical bone microdamage by nuclear magnetic resonance. Measurement Science and Technology, 16:659-668, 2005. D.P. Nicolella and J. Lankford: Microstructural strain near osteocyte lacuna in cortical bone in vitro. J Muscoloskelet Neuronal Interact, 2(3), 261-3, 2002. Nicolella, D.P., Thacker, B.H., Katoozian, H., and Davy, D.T.: Probabilistic Risk Analysis of a Cemented Hip Implant. Journal of Mathematical Modelling and Scientific computing, 13(1-2): 98-108, 2001. Thacker, B.H., Nicolella, D.P., Kumaresan, S., Yoganandan, N., and Pintar, F.A.: Probabilistic Finite Element Analysis of the Human Lower Cervical Spine. Journal of Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing, 13(1-2): 12-21, 2001. R.A. Brand, C.M. Stanford, and D.P. Nicolella: Primary Adult Human Bone Cells Do Not Respond to Tissue (Continuum) Level Strains. Journal of Orthopaedic Science, 6(3):259-301, 2001. D.P. Nicolella, A.E. Nicholls, J. Jankford, and D.T. Davy: Machine Vision Photogrammetry: a technique for measurement of microstructural strain in cortical bone. J. Biomechanics, 34(1) 134-139, 2001. Contact Information: 6220 Culebra Road San Antonio, TX 78238 Phone: 210-522-3222 Fax: 210-522-6965 dnicolella@swri.org |
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