2025 Graduation
May 15-18, 2025. Congratulations to all of our graduates this year -- Masters: Kevin Levesque and Joseph Soto; Bachelors: Kayla Dunson, Takaya Niibori, Nick Pham, Henry Chow! We are so proud of you all and can't wait to see what amazing things you accomplish in your next adventures!
Arielle Selected as NRT Trainee!
May 14, 2025. Congratulations to Arielle Gsell on her selection as an NSF-NRT Feedback Control Trainee!
**New Paper Alert**
May 2, 2025. Congratulations to Sam Mlawer and Felicia Pinto on their new paper, "Coordination of Glucose and Glutamine Metabolism in Tendon Is Lost in Aging". Check it out here!
Senior Design Day Wins!
May 2, 2025. Congratulations to all of our fantastic senior undergraduates on their design project presentations today! A special congratulations to Takaya Niibori, whose team won 2nd place, and to our hormone bioreactor team (Bridget Gomez, Arnav Mankad, Griffin Huneke), who won 3rd place.
Welcome to the lab, Arielle!
Apr 29 2025. We are thrilled to welcome our newest Ph.D. student, Arielle Gsell to the lab. Arielle will be co-advised between our lab and the Banskota Lab, and her work will focus on gene editing in tendon. Welcome, Arielle! Read more about Arielle on our People page.
Kayla Defended Her Thesis!
April 22, 2025. Congratulations to undergraduate student and lab manager extraordinaire, Kayla Dunson, for successfully defending her thesis! Kayla has been working with our friends in the O'Shea Lab for the past few years on developing new models for studying Parkinson's Disease. Her committee was enthusiastic about her thesis and recommended her for highest honors. And to top it all off, Kayla has accepted an offer to pursue her PhD in Molecular and Systems Pharmacology Program at Emory University in the Fall. Congratulations, Kayla!
Summer Undergraduate Research Funding!
April 8, 2025. Congratulations to Jonathan Sim, who was selected into the Center for Skeletal Research Summer Scholars program! Yashvi Grover and Lara Bulut also won UROP awards! We are looking forward to having these three fantastic undergrads in the lab all summer long.
Recent Paper Submission and Preprint!
March 11, 2025. Congratulations to Allison on her recent submission and preprint! The title of the paper is "Estrogen and progesterone exhibit distinct yet coordinated roles in the regulation of tendon extracellular matrix remodeling". The link is available on the publications page.
ORS 2025!!!
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February 7-11, 2025. The Connizzo Lab had a great time sharing their work and engaging with other scientists at this years ORS conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Matt, Allison, and Anthony presented posters while Hana and Emma gave talks.
Also, special congratulations to Emma for winning the 3 Minute Thesis Competition for presenting her thesis on senescence in ECM remodeling. We had a great time and learned so much. Cannot wait to go back in 2026! |
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Recent Paper Submission and Preprint!
December 21, 2024. Congratulations to Sam on his recent submission and preprint! The title of the paper is "Coordination of Glucose and Glutamine Metabolism in Tendon is Lost in Aging". The link is available on the publications page.
Best Poster Presentation
December 18, 2024. Congratulations to Caitlin on receiving the best poster presentation award at the BU training grant symposium! She presented "Strain Dependent Impacts of Sex Hormones on Female Tendon Extracellular Matrix Remodeling".
New Funding Alert!
December 16, 2024. We are happy to announce that some of our senescence work is going to be joint funded by Hevolution and the American Federation for Aging Research! We are very excited and are looking forward to keep working on this project!
Holiday Cheer!
December 12, 2024. The Connizzo Lab and the O'Shea Lab had a great time bonding and celebrating the holidays at this year's joint Christmas party.
Dr. Connizzo Featured at ORS!
December 10, 2024. Dr. Connizzo was featured as a member spotlight by the ORS. Check it out here.
ORS 2025 Acceptances
November 6, 2024. Congratulations to Hana, Emma, Anthony, Allison, and Matt on your ORS acceptances. Cannot wait to see what ORS in Phoenix has in store! Also, congratulations to Yashvi on receiving the ORS DEI travel award!
Happy Halloween!
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October 29, 2024. The lab gathered to paint and carve pumpkins for our Fall social event this year. Perhaps we should try our hands at scientific art given these masterpieces... Also featured below is our group costume -- the pipette boxes!
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UROP Symposium 2024
October 18, 2024. Congratulations to our undergraduates Izzie and Nick for their presentations at this year's UROP Symposium.
ASBMR 2024
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September 27-30, 2024. Congratulations to Hana for attending the annual ASBMR conference in Toronto. She presented her poster on "Downhill Running Induces Anti-Inflammatory Signaling in Bone and Tendon" and was able to attend helpful workshops and meet new people!
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Welcome to our New Students!
September 15, 2024. It's that time of the year again! We have a new PhD student rotating with us this fall - Arielle. We also have two masters students joining us for the year - Joseph and Kevin. Welcome back to all of our returning undergraduate students from summer vacation, and welcome to our newest lab members! You can learn all about our lab members on the People page.
Lab Summer BBQ!
July 18, 2024. The lab gathered at Dr. Connizzo's house for another annual summer barbeque, complete with more watermelon than you could eat in a summer, intense basketball and wiffle ball competitions, and plenty of laughs.
New Paper in Aging Cell!
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July 23, 2024. Congratulations to Emma Stowe and Madelyn Keller on their new paper out detailing the development of our senescent explant model, and discovering the dysregulation of ECM remodeling in senescent tenocytes. Check it out here!
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First Annual MHet ARC Mini-Symposium!
July 8, 2024. This week we attended the first annual symposium of the Musculoskeletal Health Throughout the Lifespan ARC, where we chatted about the latest orthopaedic science happening right here at BU. Congratulations to Hana Kalco and Allison Sander on their excellent poster presentations, and Allison for her first place poster award!
SB3C 2024
June 14, 2024. Members of the lab traveled out to Lake Geneva, WI for this year's Summer Bioengineering Conference. Congratulations to Sam Mlawer on his excellent talk and Allison Sander on her award winning MS Competition poster!
Welcome, Jonathan!
June 1, 2024. We have a new DSRF undergraduate student joining us this summer, Jonathan Sim. He will be working on some mechanistic studies regarding the role of inflammation resolution in tissue crosstalk following exercise. Welcome, Jonathan!
Graduation 2024
May 19, 2024. The Connizzo Lab officially has its first Masters Thesis! Congratulations to Allison Sander, M.S. who defended her thesis successfully in mid-April and walked at graduation this past weekend. We are also excited to celebrate undergraduate student, Madelyn, who also graduated this past weekend and will be pursuing a Ph.D. in the Fall at Georgia Tech. We are so proud of you both!
2024 Senior Design Team
May 3, 2024. This year's senior design team culminated their project with a fantastic presentation at the 2024 Senior Design Conference. Congrats to Diya, Nourhan, Sabrina, Marin, and Josie!
Undergraduate Awards!
April 15, 2024. Congratulations to current students Izzie and Nick for their UROP and STARS program acceptances, and new undergraduate student Jonathan on his Dean's Summer Research Fellowship award. Welcome, Jonathan!
New Paper!
March 22, 2024. Congratulations to Anthony, Emma and Sam on their accepted paper in the Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, "Aged tendons exhibit altered mechanisms of strain-dependent extracellular matrix remodeling"!
Welcome, Caitlin!
March 1, 2024. Welcome to our newest Ph.D. student, Caitlin Colicchio! To find out more about Caitlin and the rest of the team, see our People page.
Congratulations to Dr. Brianne Connizzo!!
February 5, 2024. We want to congratulate our PI on receiving the well deserved JOR Early Career Awards at ORS this year for the article Earlier proteoglycan turnover promotes higher efficiency matrix remodeling in MRL/MpJ tendons.
ORS 2024
February 2-6, 2024. We had a great time learning and networking this year at ORS in Long Beach, CA. Congratulations to Hana, Anthony, and Allison on presenting their posters (visible on the publications page) and also to Emma who had a talk on aged tendons exhibiting remodeling responses to varying levels of cyclic tensile strain. Special congrats to Anthony who received a Tendon Section poster award!
New Publication Alert!
January, 31 2024. Congratulations to Emma, Anthony, and Sam on the lab's second pre-print on aged tendons and extracellular matrix remodeling.
Welcome to our New Undergrads
January 2024. We'd like to welcome our new undergrad additions to the lab: Izzy, Nick, and Yashvi. We're so happy to have them can't wait to see what they accomplish.
Lab's First Preprint!
December 22, 2023. Congratulations to Emma and Madelyn on the submission of their first senescence paper, and the lab's first pre-print!
Lab Christmas Social
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December 15, 2023. We had lots of fun playing white elephant and enjoying good food before the holidays. Also, can't forget about the new lab merch!
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Second Lab Paper Acceptance!
November 29, 2023. Our lab's second paper is now out! Our work demonstrates that young tendons adapt to acute compressive injury, while aged tendons lacked any positive adaptive response. This implies that aged tendons lack the adaptation mechanisms required to return to homeostasis, and therefore are at greater risk for compression-induced injury. Congratulations Sam!
ORS 2024 Acceptances
November 8, 2023. We would like to congratulate Hana, Allison, Emma, and Anthony on their ORS acceptances. Can't wait to see their work presented in California in February.
Summer 2023 UROP Symposium
October 20, 2023. Congratulations to Takaya and Henry on presenting their posters at the UROP symposium. Good job and Keep up the great work!
BMES 2023
October 11-14, 2023. Congratulations Allison and Madelyn on presenting their work at BMES in Seattle. They came back having enjoyed interacting with new people and learning new things.
Lab Apple Picking Outing
October 1, 2023. We had a great time apple picking and made sure to put all the apples to good use in pastries!
Emma passed her prospectus!
September 15, 2023. Congratulations to Emma on giving a fantastic presentation and passing her prospectus!
Anthony passed his prospectus!
September 5, 2023. Congratulations to Anthony on giving a wonderful presentation and passing his prospectus!
NIH R35 MIRA Grant Awarded
August 25, 2023. We are pleased to announce that the lab has been awarded the NIH R35 MIRA Grant. By using custom- designed fluid exchange bioreactors, we will have precise control over the concentration and duration of sex hormones exposure as well as the local mechanical environment simultaneously, allowing us to study the effect of estrogen and progesterone signaling in different phases of the remodeling process. These studies will enable a fundamental understanding of the contribution of biological sex to tissue repair capacity and pave the way for our novel in vitro tools to identify new targets for the development of patient-specific therapeutics. The development of these therapeutics will prove helpful in treating degenerative tissue diseases that disproportionately affect female patients, such as sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
Allison passed her M.S. proposal!
August 17, 2023. Congratulations to Allison on passing her masters proposal! We are so proud and can't wait to see what you will accomplish over the next couple of years.
GROW and RISE
August 11, 2023. We had two awesome high school students with us this summer in the BU GROW and RISE programs. Thanks Ting Ting and Moada for your work this summer and Allison and Hana for your great mentorship!
Lab BBQ
July 27, 2023. We had a great time with the lab family during our summer bbq. We followed up with out favorite pastime puzzle rooms at Level 99.
Boston Area Tendon BBQ
July 19, 2023. We enjoyed great food and fun along with collaborating with our fellow boston area peers.
Beach Social
June 24, 2023. We enjoyed our trip to Cape Cod and had a great time out on the water.
Lab Hike with the Morgan Lab
June 21, 2023. We had a blast collaborating with the Morgan Lab on a joint hike in the White Mountains!
Trainees on Tap with Emma
June 15, 2023. Emma presented a super fun talk about "zombie" senescent cells at the 2023 annual CMTM Trainees on Tap at the BU Pub! Thanks CMTM for awesome trainee social events!
First Years Pass Qualifying Exams!
June 9, 2023. Congratulations to Hana and Matt on passing their qualifying exams! We are so proud and can't wait to see what they accomplish over the next couple of years.
SB3C2023
June 5-9, 2023. Brianne, Anthony, and Emma traveled out to beautiful Vail, Colorado to attend this year's Summer Bioengineering, Biomechanics, and Biotransport Conference. Emma and Anthony presented 3 talks on 3 consecutive days, representing the lab spectacularly! It was a very busy conference, but we made time to have a nice dinner together, go on some hikes/runs, and see the GoPro Games Dog Jumping Competition. Special congratulations to Anthony for being awarded 'Runner Up' in the SB3C Ph.D. Student Paper Competition.
Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance Funding
May 24, 2023. Our proposal "Influence of Sex and Hormone Signaling on Recovery from Exercise" was selected for funding from the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance. We are very excited to start this work, currently led by masters student Allison!
Congratulations to Felicia!!!
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May 2023. We are extremely proud to announce that Felicia is graduating this May from Boston University with a Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering. She has contributed so much to this lab, and we know that she will continue to do great things. She will be greatly missed.
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Henry and Takaya funded by UROPs!
March 29, 2023. We are extremely proud to announce that Henry Chow and Takaya Niibori will be joining us in research this summer funded by UROP.
Matt Lim Receives GRFP!
March 29, 2023. We are extremely proud to announce that Matt Lim, one of our first year PhD students, has been awarded the National Science Foundations Graduate Research Fellowship! Congrats Matt!"
Congratulations to Anthony!!
March 1, 2023. Our first paper is out!! We are excited to share our work demonstrating the more efficient matrix turnover and an increased innate response to mechanical injury in MRL/MpJ tendons.
ORS Conference
February 12-14, 2023. Emma, Anthony, Sam, and Madelyn attended the 2023 ORS Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas. Emma and Anthony presented posters on their recent work and Sam presented his first ever conference talk! Madelyn got to experience her first conference with funding awarded by BU CMTM and the ORS Undergrad Travel Grant. Congrats everyone!
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Welcome Matt and Hana!
February 1, 2023. We are so happy to welcome Hana and Matt to the Connizzo Lab as Ph.D. students. Learn more about about Hana and Matt here.
Boston Cellular Senescence Mini-Symposium
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January 20, 2023. Emma and Brianne attended the Boston Cellular Senescence Mini-Symposium to share our work on aging and cellular senescence in tendons. I was awesome to learn from other Boston labs studying cellular senescence and we look forward to many future collaborations!
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Welcome Takaya!
November 2022. Takaya is an undergraduate student who has just recently joined the lab, and we are excited to see where his research leads him. Learn more about Takaya here.
Welcome Allison!
November 2022. We would like to welcome masters student Allison to our lab and are excited to add her as a new member of the team. Learn more about Allison here.
**ORS Abstracts Accepted**
November 9, 2022. Congratulations to graduate students Anthony, Emma, and research fellow Sam on their abstract acceptances for the 2023 ORS Annual Meeting. Anthony will be presenting "Earlier Proteoglycan Turnover Promotes Higher Efficiency Matrix Remodeling in MRL/MpJ Tendons" as poster presentation, and Emma will be presenting "Senescence Contributes to Death Resistance of Aged Tenocytes in a Model of Secondary Joint Damage" as a poster presentation as well. Sam will be presenting "Differential Effect of Acute Compressive Injury on Young and Aged Tendons" as a podium presentation. We are all looking forward to our second ORS conference as a lab!
BMES 2023October 12 - 15, 2022. Congratulations to undergraduate student Felicia on presenting at her first national conference! The BMES annual meeting was a major success this Fall with making new connections and seeing the latest and greatest in science.
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Welcome Kayla!
October 17, 2022. Kayla is an undergraduate work-study student who will be working to streamline administrative lab tasks. She is excited to help wherever is needed and learn more about lab work! Learn more about Kayla here!
2022 CMTM Symposium
October 7, 2022. A whole day of mechanobiology research? What could be better? The Connizzo lab had strong representation at the Center for Multiscale Translational Mechanobiology annual symposium. Congratulations to Emma on her poster presentation and Anthony on his selection for a the lab's first conference talk!
2022 Lab Apple Picking Trip
September 25, 2022. The Connizzo Lab went on apple picking this weekend at Lookout Farm out in the suburbs. It was a little rainy, and we may have snacked a little more than we picked, but it was a great day for a fall adventure.
Welcome to Shriya!
September 1, 2022. Welcome to our new masters student, Shriya, who will be leading the efforts developing an in vivo model of inflammation-induced joint injury in the rat! Learn more about Shriya here.
**BMES Abstract Acceptance**
July 28, 2022. Undergraduate Felicia's conference abstract to the Biomedical Engineering Society annual meeting was accepted as a poster presentation. Felicia and Dr. Connizzo will travel to the conference to present her work "The Role of Glutamine Supplementation in Protein Synthesis of Murine Tendon Explants" this Fall. Congratulations, Felicia!
Connizzo Lab Wins AAUW Grant!
June 29, 2022. Dr. Connizzo was selected as a grant recipient for the American Association of University Women's Research Publication Grant in Engineering, Medicine, and Science. The AAUW is one of the largest supporters of graduate and faculty women in STEM, founded in 1881. The award will support work to complete our recent studies investigating the implications of aging on inflammation in the multi-tissue joint injury model.
Anthony @ Trainees On Tap!
ORS Tendon Section Conference
May 5-7, 2022. A subset of the Connizzo group traveled down to Philadelphia for the 2022 ORS Tendon Section Meeting at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Connizzo's old stomping grounds! In addition to presenting our work and learning all the latest and greatest tendon science, Emma and Anthony got a tour of the McKay laboratories from current trainees. Highlights of the trip included a reception at the Philadelphia Zoo, tackling the spiral staircase in our AirBnB row home, and cadaver lab with demonstrations from the Orthopaedic residents at Penn.
Summer Kick-Off Potluck!
May 1, 2022. This weekend we celebrated the end of the school year, including the graduation of our senior undergraduate Isabelle Goode, and kicked off the official start to the summer with a potluck picnic. Isabelle will be attending University of Hartford's master program in Prosthetics and Orthotics. Congrats, Izzy! You will be missed.
**Madelyn is a Dean's Fellow!**
March 29, 2022. Congratulations to Madelyn Keller for being selected for the Distinguished Summer Research Fellowship (DSRF) program and the STARS program for summer 2022! We are so proud!
Ice Skating!
February 27, 2022. Connizzo lab takes the ice for our winter social event. Thanks to undergraduate Brandon for the suggestion!
ORS 2022
February 4-8, 2022. After nearly 2 years, part of the Connizzo Lab made their way down to Tampa, Florida for the 2022 Annual Meeting of the ORS in person! We had a lot of fun networking with friends, new and old, sharing our science, and learning about what's going on in the orthopaedic research community. Congratulations to Emma and Anthony on their first poster presentations. We are very proud! Looking forward to next year's annual meeting in Dallas!
Holiday Festivities
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December 10, 2021. The first annual Connizzo Lab holiday party was a great success! This year we teamed up with our friends from the O'Shea Lab to host a cookie decorating contest. Happy Holidays!
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**ORS Abstracts Accepted**
December 2, 2021. Congratulations to graduate students Anthony and Emma on their abstract acceptances for the 2022 ORS Annual Meeting. Anthony will be presenting "MRL/MpJ Tendon Explants Maintain Greater Matrix Synthesis in Response to Stress Deprivation" and Emma will be presenting "Induction and Characterization of Cellular Senescence in Tendon Explants." We are all looking forward to our first trip and conference as a lab!
New Book Chapter Out!
November 23, 2021. Brianne's latest book chapter regarding "Tendon Extracellular Matrix Assembly, Maintenance and Dysregulation Throughout Life" has been published online and will be out in print later this week.
UROP Symposium 2021
October 22, 2021. Brandon and Felicia presented their summer research today at the annual UROP symposium. Great work and congratulations to both of them!
Lab Apple Picking Trip!
October 3, 2021. The lab headed out to Lookout Farm for our first (and hopefully annual) lab apple picking trip! The gang had a lot of fun picking, judging and eating apples right off the trees.
Welcome Madelyn!
September 20, 2021. This week we welcomed a new undergraduate in the lab. Learn more about Madelyn and what she'll be working on over at our personnel page!
First Pilot Grant Awarded!
September 19, 2021. The Connizzo Lab was awarded a Junior Faculty Pilot and Feasibility Award to support studies developing an in vivo model of inflammation-induced joint damage by the MGH Center for Skeletal Research!
Congrats to Emma and Anthony!
June 11, 2021. Our graduate students have both successfully passed their oral qualifying exams. Congrats to Emma and Anthony on a fantastic job!
Summer UROPs Arrive!
June 1, 2021. We are very excited to have three undergraduate students joining us in the lab this summer. Welcome Isabelle, Felicia and Brandon!
We Moved!
May 6, 2021. The construction is finally complete and we are officially moving into our brand new lab space! Looking forward to filling the space up over the next 10 years or so. Check out some photos below!
New Lab Members Join Us!
May 1, 2021. The Connizzo lab has officially welcomed its first two Ph.D. students. Read more about our new students, Emma and Anthony, on our personnel page!
Virtual ORS 2021
February 12-16, 2021. The Connizzo lab attended the Orthopaedic Research Society (virtual) Annual Meeting this year. Dr. Connizzo presented in the Tendon Mechanics session regarding her work with explant mechanohomeostasis and aging, and a project led by MIT undergraduate Emily Larson regarding glucose levels in explant health was presented in poster format. In addition, we attended career development sessions, scientific symposia/workshops, and many virtual social events. Looking forward to next year's annual meeting in Tampa!
Welcome to the Lab, Sam Mlawer!
January 13, 2021. Sam comes to us from the University of Rochester, where he completed his Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering. Read more about Sam's background and interests on our personnel page. Welcome, Sam!
The Connizzo Lab Opens!
January 1, 2021. We are officially moved into our lab space and open! Stay tuned for more exciting updates.