Dr. Hoemann is a full professor of Bioengineering at George Mason University in Virginia, USA. Her research program is developing new tools for the diagnosis and treatment of symptomatic early arthritis. Her training in biochemistry and molecular-cell biology (PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) was followed by bench-to-bedside development of a biomaterial-based medical device for articular cartilage repair, BST-CarGel. This device incorporates chitosan, a naturally-derived polysaccharide polymer, into the patient’s own peripheral blood to create a “tissue engineered blood clot”. Her research is helping build a new paradigm that treats the blood clot as a living tissue whose bioresponses can be tuned by environmental cues. Dr. Hoemann is an honorary member of the International Cartilage Repair Society and fellow of International Orthopaedic Research (FIOR), serves on the editorial boards of Cartilage, OsteoArthritis & Cartilage Open, is a co-founder of Ortho RTi, and internationally recognized for her expertise in orthopaedics, biomaterials, and inflammation. Her particular areas of focus include the cartilage-bone interface, osteogenesis, chondroinduction, and how subchondral bone fracture repair responses are guided by the presence of different types of structural and soluble biomaterials. Through bioengineering and clinical collaborations, she is using high frequency ultrasound to advance a new theory of creeping mineralization of articular cartilage, or tidemark advancement, after post-traumatic knee injury.
