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Clark T. Hung

Faculty Photo
Clark T. Hung
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
351 Engineering Terrace
1210 Amsterdam Avenue, Mail Code: 8904

Phone: +1 212-854-6542
Fax: +1 212-854-8725
Email:
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Education

  • 1990: Sc.B., Biomedical Engineering, Brown University
  • 1992: M.S.E., Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania
  • 1995: Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania

Awards/ Honors/ Professional Experience (Selected)

  • 1990-95: NIH Doctoral Trainee on Bone and Cartilage Biology
  • 1995: Instructor, Department of Bioengineering, University of Pennsylvania
  • 1996: Solomon Pollack Award for Graduate Research
  • 1997: Whitaker Special Opportunity Award Postdoctoral Fellowship (Center for Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University)
  • 1997: Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University
  • 1998-present: Director, "Physical Effects on Cells: Biomedical Engineering" Course offered by the Columbia University Summer High School Program
  • 2000: Guest editor, Cell & Tissue Engineering issue of Journal of Biomechanical Engineering (June issue)
  • 2002: Kim Award for Faculty Involvement
  • 2002: Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering (untenured), Columbia University
  • 2003: Negma-Lerards Prize, 3rd International Symposium on Mechanobiology of Cartilage and Chondrocyte, Brussels, Belgium, May 16-17
  • 2004: Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering (tenured), Columbia University
  • 2004: Co-author, The John Paul Stapp Best Paper Award in the 2003 Stapp Car Crash Journal presented at the 47th Stapp Car Crash Conference. A tissue level tolerance criterion for living brain developed with an in vitro model of traumatic mechanical loading(Morrison III, B lead author)
  • 2006-present: Associate Editor: Journal of Biomechanical Engineering
  • 2008-present: Deputy Editor: Journal of Orthopaedic Research
  • 2009: Elected to American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering (AIMBE)


Active Grant Support

Principal Investigator: Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF) CU07-194: Loadingfor Long-Term Maintenance of Osteochondral Grafts in Culture, 2% yearly effort, 1/1/08-6/30/09, $125,000 totalcosts. Description: Exploration of physiologic loading bioreactors and serum-free culture media as a tissue culture technique for preservation of osteochondral grafts using canine tissue. Subcontract to James L. Cook, M.D., Ph.D., Comparative Orthopaedics Laboratory, University of Missouri, MO.

Principal Investigator: NIH: NIAMS 1R01AR052871: Chondrocyte mechanotransduction using microfluidics; 25% yearly effort; approximate yearly direct costs: $200,000,8/1/06-7/30/10 (total cost for entire granting period: $1,275,000). Description:This grant will study the dynamic osmotic loading response of cultured chondrocytes using a custom microfluidics device.  The role of cell size change and osmotic load magnitude/frequency on the intracellular calcium signaling response and subsequent cytoskeletal rearrangement and aggrecan gene expression of chondrocytes will be assessed.

Principal Investigator: NIH: NIAMS 2R01AR46568: Physiologic loading for cartilage tissue engineering; approximateyearly direct cost:$200,000, 4/1/05-12/31/09 (total cost for entire granting period: $1,200,000)- 25% yearly effort. Description: This competing renewal continues our investigation of the use of applied physiologic loading in a custom bioreactor to grow functional articular cartilage.  Bovine/caninechondrocytes are encapsulated in agarose hydrogels and subjected to physiologic loading in long-term cultures. Tissue material properties and biochemical composition are measured andcompared to those of native cartilage. The aims of the grant are extended to study the effects of combined deformational loading with direct media perfusion, as well as the effects of loading boundary conditions on the development of tissue inhomogeneity and surface properties.

Co-Investigator: NIH: NIAMS 1R01AR46532 (Ateshian PI): Anisotropy and nonlinearity of cartilage mechanics; approximate yearly direct cost:$200,000, 2/1/04-1/31/10 (total cost for entire granting period: $1,571,996)- 20% yearly effort. Description: This competing renewal continues to to develop a model for articular cartilage that can explain its anisotropic and nonlinear behavior (in tension and compression).  It proposes a hierarchial series of progressively more complex experiments from the joint to the cellular level. Dr. Hung plays a role primarily in the measurement of cartilage material properties and tissue inhomogeneity, and local strain environment around thecell using custom loading devices mounted on an epifluorescence microscopy system.

Co-Investigator: NIH: NIAMS R01 AR43628 (Ateshian, PI): Biotribology of diarthrodial joints; (total cost: $1,766,739)-6/1/04-5/31/09- 10% yearly effort. This grant represents a competing renewal that uses AFM, TIRF and custom testing devices to assess the role of the superficial zone ad potential lubricants (such as lubricin or SZP protein) on diarthrodial joint lubriction.

ConsortiumPrincipal Investigator: NIH 1R21AR053530 subcontract from University of Missouri (James L. Cook, PI): Tissue engineered osteochondral patella resurfacing; total costs: $420,323 (total subcontract amount $165,000)- 2.5% effort, 3/1/06-2/28/09.  Description: This application seeks tofabricate a tissue engineered osteochondral patella construct for implantation in a canine in vivo model.  The Columbia subcontract will take canine cells from the Comparative Orthopaedic Laboratory and culture osteochondral patella constructs that will subsequently be implanted into canine knees in Missouri. 


Research Summary

Dr.Hung has been pursuing in-depth multidisciplinary collaborations with facultiesand students from the Departments of Biological Sciences, MechanicalEngineering, Chemical Engineering and Orthopaedic Surgery using withstate-of-the-art biological and engineering tools to perform research aimed atthe study of physical effects (e.g., cell deformation, fluid flow effects,hydrostatic pressure) on cells and tissues, and the incorporation of theseforces in strategies to develop functional tissue substitutes of clinicalrelevance. An understanding of the effects of physical forces on cells isimportant in the development of effective tissue replacements which mimic orrestore normal tissue structure-function in orthopaedic and other load-bearingtissues of the body. Such studies are aim at alleviating the most prevalent andchronic problems afflicting the musculoskeletal system such as arthritis, andproblems related to sports and occupational injuries.

 

Selected Publications

  • Hung CT, Henshaw DR, Wang CC-B, Mauck R, Raia F, Palmer G, Mow VC, Ratcliffe A, Valhmu WB: Mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling in bovine articular chondrocytes in response to fluid flow does not require calcium mobilization. J Biomechanics 33:73-80, 2000.
  • Chao P-HG, Roy R, Mauck RL, Liu W, Valhmu WB, Hung CT: Chondrocyte translocation response to direct current electric fields. J Biomech. Eng. 122:261-267, 2000.
  • Palmer GD, Chao P-HG, Raia F, Mauck RL, Valhmu WB, Hung CT: Time dependent aggrecan gene expression of articular chondrocytes subjected to hyperosmotic loading. Osteoarthritis Cartilage: 9(8):761-770, 2001.
  • Wang CC-B, Guo, XE, Sun, D, Mow VC, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: The functional environment of chondrocytes within cartilage subjected to compressive loading: theoretical and experimental approach. Biorheology, 39(1-2):39-45, 2002.
  • Mauck RL, Wang CC-B, Oswald ES, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: The role of cell seeding density and nutrient supply for articular cartilage tissue engineering with deformational loading Osteoarthritis Cartilage 11(12): 879-890, 2003.
  • Lima EG, Mauck RL, Han S, Park S, Ng KW, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: Functional tissue engineering of chondral and osteochondral constructs. Biorheology 41, 577-590, 2004.
  • Ng KW, Wang CC-B, Mauck RL, Kelly TN, Chahine NO, Costa KD, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: A layered agarose approach to fabricate depth-dependent inhomogeneity in chondrocyte-seeded constructs.  J Orthop Res 23(1), 134-141,2005.
  • Chao PHG, Tang Z, Angelini E, West AC, Costa KD, Hung CT: Dynamic osmotic loading of cells using a novel microfluidic device.  J Biomechanics 38(6), 1273-1281, 2005.
  • Kelly TN, Ng KW, Wang CCB, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: Spatial and temporal development of chondrocyte-seeded agarose constructs in free-swelling and dynamically loaded cultures. J Biomechanics 39(8):1489-1497, 2006.
  • Ateshian GA, Likhitpanichkul M, Hung CT: A mixture theory analysis of passive transport in osmotic loading of cells.  J Biomechanics 39(3):464-75, 2006
  • Chahine NO, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: The effect of finite compressive strain on chondrocyte viability in statically loaded bovine articular cartilage. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 6(1-2):103-111, 2007
  •  Lima EG, Bian L, Ng KW, Mauck RL, Byers BA, Tuan RS, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: The effect of applied compressive loading on tissue-engineered cartilage constructs cultured with TGF-b3. Osteoarthritis Cartilage, 15(9): 1025-1033, 2007. 
  • Chao PG, Lu HH, Hung CT*, Nicoll SB, Bulinski JC: Effects of applied DC electric field on ligament fibroblast migration and wound healing.  Connect Tissue Res, 48(4):188-197, 2007. (*corresponding author)
  • Lima EG, Chao PG, Ateshian GA, Bal S, Cook JL, Vunjak-Novakovic G, Hung CT : The effect of devitalized trabecular bone on the formation of osteochondral tissue-engineered constructs, Biomaterials 29(32):4292-4299, 2008.
  • Oswald ES, Chao PG, Bulinski JC, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: Zonal variation in chondrocyte water transport properties and proteoglycan production in juvenile bovine cartilage do not depend on osmotic environment.  Cell Mol Bioeng 1(4):339-348, 2008.
  • Ng KW, Kugler LE, Doty SB, Ateshian GA, Hung CT: Scaffold degradation elevates the collagen content and dynamic compressive modulus in engineered articular cartilage.  Osteoarthritis Cartilage 17(2):220-227, 2009.


Courses Taught

  • BMEN 4501, 4502: Tissue Engineering I and II
  • BMEN 3820: Biomedical Engineering Laboratory II
  • Biomedical Engineering: Physical Effects on Cells (Summer High School Course in July)

Effects of physical, mechanical, and chemical stimuli on musculoskeletal cells related to cellular and tissue engineering.