Marc Levenston

Academic Appointments:

• Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

• Member, Bio-X

• Member, Cardiovascular Institute

• Member, Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance

• Member, Maternal & Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI)

Bio:

Dr. Levenston’s research focuses on the function, degeneration, and repair of musculoskeletal soft tissues, particularly articular cartilage and meniscal fibrocartilage. His work examines how mechanical and biochemical cues interact to regulate cell behavior, with applications to understanding tissue degeneration, developing engineered tissue systems, and improving noninvasive imaging approaches for assessing tissue composition and health.

Current Research and Scholarly Interests:

Research in the STBL centers on the mechanical and biological behaviors of cartilage and meniscus—soft tissues essential for proper joint function. The lab investigates how cellular and extracellular matrix interactions influence tissue development, degeneration, and repair, with special attention to cell-mediated mechanisms driving cartilage and meniscus degradation in conditions such as osteoarthritis. These studies leverage custom-engineered 3D culture systems to model how physical and chemical cues jointly regulate primary and progenitor cell responses.

Another key focus is identifying and tracking early degenerative changes that arise from injury, overload, or combined mechanical and biological stressors. Ongoing projects include the development and validation of advanced imaging techniques for nondestructive evaluation of cartilage composition and structure, exploration of composition-structure-function relationships during tissue degeneration, and creation of tissue-engineered models for studying inter-tissue signaling and the progression of joint disease.