{"id":17708,"date":"2025-10-09T08:41:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T12:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=17708"},"modified":"2025-11-10T08:04:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T13:04:20","slug":"purdue-to-launch-musculoskeletal-center-in-indianapolis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/Q4\/purdue-to-launch-musculoskeletal-center-in-indianapolis","title":{"rendered":"Purdue to launch musculoskeletal center in Indianapolis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Eager to grow in Indianapolis, Purdue University\u2019s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering<\/a> (BME) has announced a plan to launch the Purdue Center for Musculoskeletal Engineering (PCME) in the capital city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musculoskeletal diseases, such as osteoarthritis or osteoporosis, affect scores of Americans and place a significant burden on health, quality of life and the health care system as a whole. A major goal of the center is to use engineering approaches to help prevent diseases harmful to the musculoskeletal system and treat them more efficiently when they occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPurdue has the engineering and scientific expertise to drive new approaches and new solutions for these problems, and this center brings those strengths together to improve health and mobility for millions of people,\u201d said Joseph Wallace<\/a>, Purdue\u2019s associate vice president for research development and professor of biomedical engineering in Indianapolis. He will serve as the center\u2019s inaugural director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis center reinforces Purdue\u2019s leading role in biomedical engineering research excellence,\u201d said Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering<\/a> and the Robert V. Adams Professor in Mechanical Engineering. \u201cWe believe future discoveries from PCME will have lasting real-world impacts felt well beyond just the city of Indianapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIndiana is the nation\u2019s No. 1 life sciences exporter and home to Warsaw, the \u2018orthopedics capital of the world.\u2019 At Purdue\u2019s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, we have doubled undergraduate enrollment in six years and sponsored research in seven. PCME strengthens our base in Indianapolis and positions us to help lead the ecosystem to its next giant leap of innovation,\u201d said Kevin J. Otto, the Dane A. Miller Head of Biomedical Engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPCME is another step in our continued expansion in Indianapolis that brings the power of Purdue\u2019s research excellence to the capital city,\u201d said David Umulis, Purdue\u2019s senior vice provost for Indianapolis. \u201cBy combining engineering innovation with impactful medical research, we\u2019re opening doors to transformative solutions that can change lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PCME will be a gathering point for current Purdue faculty who work in areas that align with musculoskeletal disease and health, as well as a place where researchers can support one another and foster collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The center is in its infancy, \u201cso we have to build around the preexisting strengths of Purdue faculty who are currently studying musculoskeletal tissues,\u201d Wallace said. Current research targets bone, cartilage, tendons and ligaments, and basic tissue extracellular matrices, but eventually PCME will extend into muscle and spine\/intervertebral disc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are many diseases and injuries that impact these tissues. Most would probably think of osteoporosis (bone) and osteoarthritis (cartilage),\u201d Wallace said. His lab, however, studies diabetes and chronic kidney disease \u2014 both of which have major impacts on the skeleton, leading to dramatic increases in fracture risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of PCME\u2019s researchers already have robust research programs of their own, and many of them already are members of the Indiana Center for Musculoskeletal Health (ICMH) at Indiana University School of Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis new center will be in alignment with their goals \u2014 but with a Purdue focus,\u201d Wallace said, adding that IU School of Medicine and Purdue\u2019s BME already share a joint Doctor of Medicine\/PhD program. \u201cI see this as being mutually beneficial to all since more of our focus is on the engineering aspect,\u201d Wallace explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEngineering is an important part of the equation,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cWhile we will continue to be members of ICMH, this new Purdue center formalizes our own commitment to solving the complex problems facing this important organ system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 18, Purdue was part of a consortium that was announced as one of the 15 finalists to advance to the next round of the National Science Foundation\u2019s Regional Innovation Engines<\/a> competition. The program supports flourishing innovation ecosystems to spur economic growth in critical technologies. The competition started with about 300 letters of intent in summer 2024 and was whittled down to 71, then 29 and now 15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur joint proposal \u2014 with IU School of Medicine leading and multiple other partners across the state participating \u2014 is a finalist for a 10-year, $160 million grant aimed at building a musculoskeletal health innovation ecosystem across Indiana that bridges the gap between unmet medical needs and the technologies that can solve them,\u201d said Wallace, who has been working in Indianapolis for 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An active and collaborative musculoskeletal researcher, Wallace currently is funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He has worked closely with partners across the Indianapolis ecosystem, as well as nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know how beneficial strong relationships can be,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I imagine building those relationships at a higher level, I see the potential for great things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This center aligns with Purdue’s presidential One Health initiative<\/a>, which involves research at the intersection of human, animal and plant health and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About Purdue University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative \u2014 at https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n Media contact:<\/strong> Derek Schultz, schul221@purdue.edu<\/a> <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Eager to grow in Indianapolis, Purdue University\u2019s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering (BME) has announced a plan to launch the Purdue Center for Musculoskeletal Engineering (PCME) in the capital city. Musculoskeletal diseases, such as osteoarthritis or osteoporosis, affect<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":17705,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[308,7],"tags":[],"department":[],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[10],"class_list":["post-17708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purdue-university-in-indianapolis","category-research-excellence","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17708"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18125,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17708\/revisions\/18125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17708"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=17708"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=17708"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=17708"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}