Dr. David Rowe has been named the recipient of the 2010 UConn Health Center Board of Directors Faculty Recognition Award.
The award recognizes Rowe’s outstanding contributions to research, teaching, and mentoring.
Rowe is a professor of genetics and developmental biology and director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Development in the School of Dental Medicine.
His main research interest is the human genetic disease Osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as Brittle Bone Disease. He is also one of the lead researchers in UConn’s new Stem Cell Institute.
He heads nine discrete projects at the Health Center, with grants totaling $3.5 million: Directing hES Derived Progenitor Cells into Musculoskeletal Lineages. Collectively, the participating researchers are studying how embryonic stem cells could help rebuild bone, cartilage, skin, and muscle.
Rowe’s career illustrates the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation in research and teaching in the health and biological sciences. He initially studied the clinical and molecular diagnostic issues and genetic mechanisms of Brittle Bone Disease as a clinical scientist and professor in the Department of Pediatrics.
Ten years ago, he left clinical medicine to focus on his basic research within the then newly constituted Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology. It was during this time that Rowe began developing collaborations with investigators at the Storrs campus, particularly with researchers in the computer science department.
The opportunity to develop a multidisciplinary environment arose in 2006 when he became the director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine and Skeletal Biology in the School of Dental Medicine.
Rowe is part of a faculty working group of developmental, molecular, and cell biologists and material, mechanical, imaging, and computer scientists. They are working to develop regenerative strategies for the skeleton based on fundamental scientific principles. The focus of their effort is to understand and implement strategies for regenerating bone, cartilage, dental, and muscle structures using adult and embryonic stem-cell sources.
During his academic career at the Health Center, Rowe has lectured in the basic science curriculum shared by medical and dental students, and has also taught mammalian genetics at the graduate level. He has been the primary mentor for 10 doctoral graduate students and 23 postdoctoral fellows to date.
In 2007, he was elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. In November 2007, he was featured in a New York Times story on UConn’s stem-cell initiatives.
