Assistant Professor
Joint Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University
Brian Diekman is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering in a joint department that spans both the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and North Carolina State University. His research laboratory is housed within the Thurston Arthritis Research Center at UNC. After completing his undergraduate degree at Duke University, Brian worked with Drs. Mary Murphy and Frank Barry at the National University of Ireland Galway through a Fulbright research grant. Brian then received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University, with his graduate work focusing on cartilage tissue engineering in the laboratory of Dr. Farshid Guilak. Dr. Diekman completed post-doctoral research in the fields of cellular senescence and aging biology at UNC with Dr. Norman “Ned” Sharpless in the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. He launched his research laboratory in 2017 and the lab has received funding from the Arthritis National Research Foundation, the American Federation of Aging Research, the Orthoregeneration Network, and the National Institutes of Health. The Diekman lab is interested in the mechanisms by which aging results in such a high prevalence of OA later in life. Specific areas of focus are DNA damage, cellular senescence, the response to compressive loading, and the interaction of aging and genetic risk factors for OA. The overall goal of the lab is to identify novel targets for intervention that will prevent, slow, or reverse OA.