Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence, College of Engineering
Phone: 510-642-3739
5122 Etcheverry Hall
UC Berkeley
Subject areas:
Research
The O’Connell Lab is focused on soft tissue biomechanics and tissue regeneration. Specifically, our goal is to understand the mechanical function of the healthy, degenerated and injured intervertebral disc in order to develop more physiologically relevant repair strategies. Injury, through herniation, or degeneration may lead to debilitating lower back pain. Current research is focused on understanding alterations in biomechanics and tissue remodeling with degeneration and injury. Other studies are focused on using organ culture techniques to directly measure tissue remodeling and potential biological repair strategies.