Dr. Villani earned his B.S. from the University of Wisconsin before completing his PhD at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. He has recently joined the Department of Orthopedics and the Colorado Program for Musculoskeletal Research on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to pursue research directions focused on investigating 1) the role of the gut microbiome in post-traumatic and obesity-associated osteoarthritis, and 2) how intestinal inflammation influences immune cell migration from the gut to the joint, establishing the concept of the ‘gut-joint’ axis.