MAE Seminar: Joint loading exposure and knee osteoarthritis

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MAE Seminar: Joint loading exposure and knee osteoarthritis

Zoom Meeting ID: 930 6170 9707 Passcode: MAE

Kerry Costello, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Boston University

Mechanical loading on the knee joint during human movement is one of the only modifiable risk factors for knee osteoarthritis, a painful disease affecting over 350 million people worldwide. Gait analysis studies have identified key features of joint loading during walking that are associated with disease progression, in particular the knee adduction moment magnitude. However, the tissues of the joint respond not only to the magnitude, but also to the time-varying, multi-dimensional patterns of joint loading exposure. Better characterization of these loading patterns and their role in the disease process could lead to improved conservative management for knee osteoarthritis, such as patient-specific recommendations for physical activity type, intensity, and frequency. The technologies used to capture gait data in a laboratory setting and physical activity data in a real-world setting (e.g., accelerometers) provide a wealth of detailed information about how people move and the associated loading patterns during movement. However, the complex interactions among gait, physical activity, and patient-specific factors (e.g., age, sex, disease severity) make traditional analyses challenging. This talk presents research exploring machine learning approaches to analyze these complex loading patterns in order to better understand knee osteoarthritis progression and identify potential targets for interventions to slow the disease process.

Biography
Kerry Costello is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physical Therapy & Athletic Training at Boston University and the Section of Rheumatology at the Boston University School of Medicine. She completed her doctoral work in biomedical engineering at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at Virginia Tech, and her undergraduate degree in biomedical and mechanical engineering at Duke University. Dr. Costello also spent a year doing research at a private orthopedic sports medicine research institute in Colorado and a year completing a Fulbright scholarship at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her research utilizes motion capture data, wearable sensor data, and machine learning tools to understand how time-varying, multidimensional joint loading patterns contribute to disease progression in knee osteoarthritis. Dr. Costello is a former NIH F32 and T32 grant awardee and was recently awarded a career development award through the Rheumatology Research Foundation to study patterns of physical activity in knee osteoarthritis using deep learning. She also created, hosts, and produces the Osteoarthritis Research Society International’s ‘Hey OA’ podcast.