TEAM

Henry J. Donahue, Ph.D

BME Professor and Chair

Dr. Donahue is the Alice T. and William H. Goodwin, Jr. Endowed Professor and Chair Department of Biomedical Engineering and Co-Director, Institute for Engineering and Medicine  at Virginia Commonwealth University. He received his Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. He has over 30 years of experience studying musculoskeletal biology, using both in vitro and in vivo models. His research focuses on understanding the mechanism by which bone and muscle adapt to their mechanical environment; examining the effects of space flight on musculoskeletal tissues and exploiting biophysical signals, including shear stress and nanotopography, to develop innovative strategies to regenerate musculoskeletal tissue lost to disease, injury or ageing. His research has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health for over 30 years and he has had funding from the Department of Defense, NASA/National Space Biology Research Institute, private foundations and industry. Dr. Donahue is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research and the Orthopaedic Research Society.

Email: hjdonahue@vcu.edu
Phone: (804) 828-7958
Twitter: @HenryJDonahue1

Michael A Friedman, Ph.D

TRISH Postdoctoral Fellow

Michael is a TRISH postdoctoral fellow who received his PhD and Masters in biomedical engineering from Michigan University. Michael received his bachelor’s degree from University of Texas at Austin in biomedical engineering as well. His research focuses on interactive effects of exercise and nutrition on the musculoskeletal system. He is interested in studying ways to maximize bone mass and bone strength as well as ways of preventing bone loss from disuse or disease. His TRISH postdoctoral fellowship is focused on studying the effects of genetic variability on unloading-induced bone and muscle loss.

Email:  mafriedman@vcu.edu
Twitter: @MAFriedmanVCU

Otto (OJ) Juhl

BME Doctoral Candidate 

Otto (OJ) is a Ph.D candidate studying biomedical engineering under Dr. Donahue at VCU. His undergraduate degree was from the University of Delaware in 2016 in biomedical engineering as well. His current research focuses on the effects of nanotopography and the role different topographies play in bone healing and remodeling in synthetic composite grafts. Additionally he is evaluating a novel pathway by which substrate surface characteristics are transduced into intracellular signals to then regulate osteogenesis in vitro.

Email: juhloj@vcu.edu

Gabe Hoppock

BME Ph.D Student

Gabe is a Ph.D student studying Biomedical Engineering under Dr. Henry Donahue at VCU. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in 2019. Gabe is researching the effect loading and simulated microgravity have on osteocytes, both in vitro and in vivo.  Specifically, the effects these changes have on osteocyte phenotype and protein expression and the effect of osteocytic protein expression on other musculoskeletal cell types.

Email: hoppockg@vcu.edu

Lovell Abraham

Chemistry Undergraduate Student

Joseph Denisco

BME Undergraduate Student