Dr. Danielle Rux is a Research Scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her research is focused on understanding the developmental mechanisms of synovial joint formation/maturation (i.e., articular cartilage) and using this knowledge to inform mechanisms of
cartilage disease (e.g., osteoarthritis) and the development of novel regenerative treatments. She completed her PhD training in Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan in 2016 where she discovered that the Hox genes, an evolutionarily conserved group of transcription factors critical for patterning in embryonic development, also function postnatally in a key subset of skeletal progenitors required for fracture healing. During this time, Dr. Rux also developed an interest in working at the interface of developmental biology and orthopedics and closely collaborating with colleagues in biomedical engineering to translate basic developmental
mechanisms to functional control of regeneration. During her postdoctoral training at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Dr. Rux has established key new mouse models to explore and test mechanisms of postnatal articular cartilage development, including morphogenetic
signaling and mechanobiology, that are required to develop a fully functional synovial joint.

Dr. Rux has been awarded NIH several training grants throughout her pre- and post-doctoral training and has also recently been awarded a coveted K99/R00 grant that will support her work as she launches her independent research program at the UConn Health Musculoskeletal
Institute in November 2023.