Mary Afzali

Dr. Mary Afzali holds a PhD in Toxicology from Colorado State University. She recently completed her post-doctoral training in Dr. Kelly S. Santangelo’s Lab her work focused on primary and post-traumatic osteoarthritis. These studies involved multiple rodent projects evaluating disease and symptom modification related to: modification of cellular iron accumulation to treat age-related osteoarthritis; knee osteoarthritis-specific acupuncture therapy; novel methods of anterior cruciate ligament rupture; manipulations of the infrapatellar fat pad to mitigate osteoarthritis; and systemic mesenchymal stem cell therapy. Mary’s research plan involves using a cross-disciplinary approach to elucidate underlying pathology in translational models of musculoskeletal disease in both laboratory models and human patients. The goal of this work is to further our understanding of disease pathogenesis and discover therapeutic targets that would translate to the human disease.