Associate Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery
Associate Professor in Pathology
Lab site: https://sites.duke.edu/themcnultylab
The long-term goals of the McNulty lab are to develop strategies to prevent osteoarthritis and to promote tissue repair and regeneration following joint injury. We are working to identify the pathways that are activated by physiologic and injurious mechanical loading of joint tissues and how these mechanotransduction pathways are altered during aging. Our focus is on a greater understanding of alterations in mechanosensitive signaling mechanisms with aging and injury, revealing potential targets to prevent tissue degeneration and osteoarthritis. Finally, we are also characterizing the mechanical and biological changes in the joint following injury and how these alterations contribute to osteoarthritis development and could be targeted for the development of therapeutics.
For more information, visit Dr. McNulty’s Google Scholars page.
Research from our group recently won a 2018 Orthopaedic Research Society Meniscus Section Poster Award for research entitled: “Optimization of Lentiviral Transduction of Meniscus Cells for Tissue Engineering Applications.” The authors of this study were Katherine A. Glass, Jacob C. Ruprecht, Jarrett M. Link, Taylor D. Waanders, J. Brice Weinberg, Farshid Guilak, and Amy L. McNulty.
We were recently awarded the OREF MTF Research grant for our project entitled: “Improving Meniscus Repair Using a Meniscus-derived Matrix Allograft.” The grant was awarded to Co-PIs Amy McNulty, PhD and William Garrett, MD, PhD.
Current Grants
VA Rehabilitation Research Service Award (Weinberg) 04/01/15 – 3/31/19
Combining Gene Therapy and Tissue Engineering to Enhance Meniscal Repair
The goal of this study is to develop combined tissue engineering and gene therapy treatments that will promote meniscal repair in the pro-inflammatory environment after meniscal injury.
Role: Co-Investigator
P30-AG028716 (Schmader) 07/01/16 – 06/30/18
Duke Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center
The NIH-funded Duke “Pepper Center” supports basic, clinical, and translational research, exploratory studies, and career development related to its theme: to understand and optimize physiological reserve and physical resilience in older adults.
The goal of this study is to provide proof-of-concept that transient receptor potential vanilloid 4 (TRPV4)-mediated mechanotransduction is dysregulated in old chondrocytes and restoration of these mechanisms will rejuvenate chondrocytes.
Role: Pepper Scholar, Pilot awardee
Orthopaedic Research Education Foundation/Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (McNulty and Garrett) 07/01/18 – 06/30/20
The overall goal of this proposal is to generate a novel cell allograft scaffold combination and mechanical loading regimen that will enhance integrative meniscus repair.
Role: Co-PI
Current Projects
- Development of tissue engineering and gene therapy strategies to enhance repair of meniscus tears
- Improving meniscus repair using a meniscus-derived matrix allograft
- Characterization of meniscus mechanotransduction mechanisms in meniscus health and disease
- Understanding the chondrocyte mechanome to identify therapeutic targets for joint diseases
- Identification of biomarker profiles in subjects with joint injuries that may predict clinical outcomes
- Developing methods for growth plate stimulation to treat patients with limb length inequalities
Selected Publications
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Buchanan, Michael W., Bridgette D. Furman, Amy L. McNulty, and Steven A. Olson. “Combination of Lidocaine and IL-1Ra Is Effective at Reducing Degradation of Porcine Cartilage Explants.” Am J Sports Med 50, no. 7 (June 2022): 1997–2006. https://doi.org/10.1177/03635465221090611.
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Andress, Benjamin D., Rebecca M. Irwin, Ishaan Puranam, Brenton D. Hoffman, and Amy L. McNulty. “A Tale of Two Loads: Modulation of IL-1 Induced Inflammatory Responses of Meniscal Cells in Two Models of Dynamic Physiologic Loading.” Front Bioeng Biotechnol 10 (2022): 837619. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.837619.
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Cutcliffe, Hattie C., Pavan K. Kottamasu, Amy L. McNulty, Adam P. Goode, Charles E. Spritzer, and Louis E. DeFrate. “Mechanical metrics may show improved ability to predict osteoarthritis compared to T1rho mapping.” J Biomech 129 (December 2, 2021): 110771. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2021.110771.
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Arrigoni, Paolo, Jacob C. Ruprecht, Dawn A. D. Chasse, Katherine A. Glass, Benjamin Andress, Farshid Guilak, J Brice Weinberg, and Amy L. McNulty. “Optimization of Meniscus Cell Transduction Using Lentivirus and Adeno-Associated Virus for Gene Editing and Tissue Engineering Applications.” Cartilage 13, no. 2_suppl (December 2021): 1602S-1607S. https://doi.org/10.1177/1947603519880321.
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Kim-Wang, Sophia Y., Abigail G. Holt, Alyssa M. McGowan, Stephanie T. Danyluk, Adam P. Goode, Brian C. Lau, Alison P. Toth, et al. “Immune cell profiles in synovial fluid after anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus injuries.” Arthritis Res Ther 23, no. 1 (November 4, 2021): 280. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13075-021-02661-1.
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Andress, Benjamin, Jason H. Kim, Hattie C. Cutcliffe, Annunziato Amendola, Adam P. Goode, Shyni Varghese, Louis E. DeFrate, and Amy L. McNulty. “Meniscus cell regional phenotypes: Dedifferentiation and reversal by biomaterial embedding.” J Orthop Res 39, no. 10 (October 2021): 2177–86. https://doi.org/10.1002/jor.24954.
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Irwin, R. M., I. Puranam, B. D. Hoffman, and A. L. McNulty. “DIFFERENTIAL RESPONSE OF INNER AND OUTER ZONE MENISCAL CELLS TO TENSILE LOAD UNDER NON-INFLAMMATORY AND INFLAMMATORY CONDITIONS.” In Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 29:S3–4, 2021.
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Lyons, L. P., J. B. Weinberg, J. R. Wittstein, and A. L. McNulty. “Blood in the joint: effects of hemarthrosis on meniscus health and repair techniques.” Osteoarthritis Cartilage 29, no. 4 (April 2021): 471–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joca.2020.11.008.
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Lee, Whasil, Robert J. Nims, Alireza Savadipour, Qiaojuan Zhang, Holly A. Leddy, Fang Liu, Amy L. McNulty, Yong Chen, Farshid Guilak, and Wolfgang B. Liedtke. “Inflammatory signaling sensitizes Piezo1 mechanotransduction in articular chondrocytes as a pathogenic feed-forward mechanism in osteoarthritis.” Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 118, no. 13 (March 30, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2001611118.
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Nims, Robert J., Lara Pferdehirt, Noelani B. Ho, Alireza Savadipour, Jeremiah Lorentz, Sima Sohi, Jordan Kassab, et al. “A synthetic mechanogenetic gene circuit for autonomous drug delivery in engineered tissues.” Sci Adv 7, no. 5 (January 2021). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd9858.
More info
People
- Amy McNulty, PhD, Principal Investigator
- Dawn Chasse, Lab Manager and Research Analyst I
- Ben Andress, Pathology Graduate Student
- Sofia Hildago Perea, Undergraduate Independent Study Student
- Lucas Lyons, Research Technician
- Jason Kim, Undergraduate Independent Study Student
Jobs
Positions are available in the McNulty Lab for graduate students, medical students, and postdoctoral researchers. Duke graduate and/or medical students should send an email stating your interest in a research rotation. Postdoctoral candidates should provide a cover letter, CV, and contact information for three professional references. These items should be sent to alr@duke.edu.
Contact
Medical Sciences Research Building I, 203 Research Drive, Room 367
DUMC Box 3093, Durham, NC 27710
919-684-6882
alr@duke.edu