Fackson Mwale

Biography

Dr. Fackson Mwale is head of orthopaedics research at the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital and Professor of Surgery at McGill University in Montreal. He is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of orthopaedics and spine research, who served as co-chair of the 11th Canadian Connective Tissue Conference in Montreal in 2005. Dr. Mwale won the new investigator recognition award from the Orthopaedic Research Society in 1999. He is well-known for his identification that Link-N peptide, the N-terminal peptide of link protein which is generated in vivo by proteolytic degradation during tissue turnover, can stimulate the synthesis of proteoglycans and collagens by intervertebral disc (IVD) cells. Furthermore, being a synthetic peptide, Link N has considerable financial benefits for clinical use over recombinant growth factors because it is extremely cheap to produce. He also showed that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from osteoarthritic patients express type X collagen (a marker of chondrocyte hypertrophy) and that it can be suppressed by culturing stem cells on nitrogen (N)-rich plasma polymer layers. His laboratory continues to work in the fields of tissue engineering of IVDs and in developing an objective, accurate, non-invasive diagnostic tool (quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)) in the detection and quantification of matrix and biomechanical changes in early IVD degeneration. He showed that the production of an extracellular matrix with a high proteoglycan to collagen ratio can be used in vivo to distinguish nucleus pulposus (NP) cells from chondrocytes, and could help in identifying a NP-like phenotype in vivo, as opposed to a chondrocyte when MSCs are induced to differentiate for tissue engineering of a disc.

Research Interest

Dr. Fackson Mwale is head of orthopaedics research at the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital and Professor of Surgery at McGill University in Montreal. He is an internationally recognized scientist in the field of orthopaedics and spine research, who served as co-chair of the 11th Canadian Connective Tissue Conference in Montreal in 2005. Dr. Mwale won the new investigator recognition award from the Orthopaedic Research Society in 1999. He is well-known for his identification that Link-N peptide, the N-terminal peptide of link protein which is generated in vivo by proteolytic degradation during tissue turnover, can stimulate the synthesis of proteoglycans and collagens by intervertebral disc (IVD) cells. Furthermore, being a synthetic peptide, Link N has considerable financial benefits for clinical use over recombinant growth factors because it is extremely cheap to produce. He also showed that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from osteoarthritic patients express type X collagen (a marker of chondrocyte hypertrophy) and that it can be suppressed by culturing stem cells on nitrogen (N)-rich plasma polymer layers. His laboratory continues to work in the fields of tissue engineering of IVDs and in developing an objective, accurate, non-invasive diagnostic tool (quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)) in the detection and quantification of matrix and biomechanical changes in early IVD degeneration. He showed that the production of an extracellular matrix with a high proteoglycan to collagen ratio can be used in vivo to distinguish nucleus pulposus (NP) cells from chondrocytes, and could help in identifying a NP-like phenotype in vivo, as opposed to a chondrocyte when MSCs are induced to differentiate for tissue engineering of a disc.