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Sports Medicine Research Program

Department of Orthopaedics

As South Florida’s only academic sports medicine program, the University of Miami Sports Medicine Institute is on the leading edge of biomedical and clinical research to improve athletic performance and healing.

Our multidisciplinary research team includes more than 30 clinicians and scientists working within the resource-rich setting of the University of Miami’s downtown medical and Coral Gables campuses.

  • Research Collaborations
  • Institute Membership
  • Bench to Sideline
  • Regenerative Medicine
  • Sports Genomics
  • Athletic Performance and Return to Play
  • Concussion
  • Clinical Outcomes
  • Publications

Research Collaborations

The University of Miami Sports Medicine Institute boasts both NIH-funded and investigator-initiated studies, and research collaborators include colleagues from medicine, engineering, kinesiology, and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. Some of our institutional and individual collaborators include:

  • John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics
    • Anthony Griswold, Ph.D.
    • Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D.
    • Chris Bennett, Ph.D.
  • Dimitrios Kouroupis, Ph.D.
  • Neil Spielholz Functional Outcomes Research & Evaluation (FORE) Center
    • Robert Gailey, Ph.D.
  • UM Department of Physical Therapy
    • Luis Feigenbaum, DPT, ATC
    • Ignacio Gaunaurd, MSPT, Ph.D.
    • Teresa Glynn, MSPT, DPT
    • Eryn Milian, Ph.D., DPT
  • UM College of Engineering
    • Chun-Yuh C. Huang, Ph.D. (Mechanobiology, Biomechanics, Stem Cells, Tissue Engineering)
    • Alicia Jackson, Ph.D. (Transport and Electromechanical Properties, Nutritional Supply to Cells and Tissues, Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Soft Tissues)
    • Francesco Travascio, Ph.D. (Biomechanics, Orthopaedics, Robot Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery, Musculoskeletal Modeling, Biomedical Imaging, Biotransport)
  • UM Department of Kinesiology and Sports Sciences
  • Joseph Signorile, Ph.D. (Kinesiology, Exercise and Functional Decline, Body-Weight Training Modalities)

Institute Membership

Sports Medicine Institute membership is available and encouraged for all University of Miami investigators (click here for the membership form) who hold a faculty appointment and are actively engaged in, or demonstrate interest in, sports medicine-focused basic and clinical research in alignment with the Institute’s mission and strategic plan. Eligibility and privileges are based on the applicant’s current level of sports medicine-focused research and affiliation with the Institute. Research activities of the Institute are organized into defined programmatic areas.

Current research programs include:

  • stem cell/regenerative medicine
  • the genomics of athletic injuries and healing
  • athletic performance and return to play
  • concussion
  • clinical outcomes following surgical and non-operative care

Bench to Sideline

Our research programs feature a ‘bench to sideline’ approach, with more than 60 research studies enrolling adult and youth athletes seeking treatment for chronic and disabling sports-injury diseases.

Our areas of targeted research include regenerative medicine, athletic performance and return to play, concussion, and clinical outcomes. Each of these four areas includes both laboratory and clinical studies where we combine both approaches to advance patient care.

Regenerative Medicine

The University of Miami has a rich history which began by using stem cell therapies to treat heart disease and has applied the findings to more than 16 disease areas, including:

  • therapies for wound healing
  • lung disease
  • sports injuries
  • kidney disease
  • aging frailty
  • gastrointestinal issues

Sports Medicine Institute researchers collaborate with several universities, industry, and international colleagues to explore the latest application of stem cell and other cell-based therapies in the following areas:

  • Platelet-rich Plasma (PRP) Therapy
  • Lipo-aspirate (Fat-derived) Stem Cell Therapy

Sports Genomics

Sports-related traumatic injuries are occurring with increasing frequency, both in athletes and the general population. Even after surgery and appropriate rehabilitation, the risk for subsequent post-traumatic osteoarthritis remains high. More than half of these patients develop osteoarthritis of the affected knee later in life.

In an effort to characterize the underlying biology and early molecular changes following traumatic injury, a collaboration was formed between the University of Miami Sports Medicine Institute and the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. With complementary expertise in clinical sports medicine, molecular genetics, epidemiology, and biostatistics, this team is currently utilizing leading-edge genomics methods to study the body's response to injury. This includes massively parallel sequencing to measure gene expression in knee synovial fluid and circulating plasma following knee injury. This research holds great promise to elucidate molecular mechanisms initiated at the time of injury, determine informative biomarkers to detect osteoarthritis at early stage when intervention is likely to be most effective, and eventually identify novel pharmaceutical targets that can stop or slow down the development of osteoarthritis after injury.

Athletic Performance and Return to Play

At the heart of sports medicine is injury prevention and safe return to play following injury. We are active in a number of studies that utilize novel non-invasive inertial measurement technologies – developed at the University of Miami – to screen athletes for injury and well as better predict a safe return to play.

Concussion

Sport-related concussion is one of the fastest growing areas of research in the field of sports medicine. Our concussion program works closely with both professional and collegiate athletes and serves as the major provider of concussion care to high school athletes in the Miami-Dade and Palm Beach County areas. A number of research studies are ongoing to better understand the optimal care of the concussed athlete as well as factors predicting prolonged recovery from injury.

Clinical Outcomes

We are actively engaged in studies that focus on the patient and his/her outcomes following both surgical and non-operative care. Our goal is to learn from our patients and their experience with our treatments in order to develop patient-specific targeted therapies. In addition to outcome studies within our program, we are involved in a number of multi-center studies that aim to reach a broader patient population.