The primary research focus of the Tower Lab is to understand the complex interactions that occur among various cell types following musculoskeletal disease, trauma, or tumor metastasis, and how these interactions regulate fibrotic versus regenerative outcomes. Using a combination of in vitro systems, transgenic mouse models, advanced bioinformatics, and patient samples, members of the Tower Lab investigate the transcriptional, metabolic, and spatial reprogramming that occurs in response to perturbation.
The lab makes extensive use of traumatic models of amputation, fracture, and heterotopic ossification for these studies. Of particular interest is how the body senses extremity trauma to coordinate a systemic immune response, as well as how systemic immune cells home to sites of injury and regulate bone repair. The overarching goal of the lab is to define fibrotic and reparative signatures and leverage therapeutic interventions to shift these signatures toward more favorable pathways for the treatment of human disease.