Serving as co-principal investigators in the study will be Joseph Freeman (sbes.vt/people/faculty/primary/freeman.html), an assistant professor at the Virginia Tech - Wake Forest University School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences and director of the Musculoskeletal Tissue Regeneration Laboratory, and Jennifer Barrett (vetmed.vt/emc/welcome/bios/barrett.asp), an assistant professor of surgery at Virginia Tech's Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center. Freeman will focus on molecular modeling, while Barrett will handle molecular biology; all three will work on experimental mechanics.

De Vita earned a laurea degree in mathematics from Italy's University of Naples II in 2000, and masters and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2003 and 2005, respectively.

Freeman earned his bachelor of science in chemical engineering from Princeton University, and his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Rutgers University and The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Barrett received a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 2002 and a doctorate in molecular biology from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1999.

Source: Virginia Tech