Vicki Rosen

About

Dr. Vicki Rosen is a professor and chair of the Department of Developmental Biology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM), where she has served since 2001. She was named the first incumbent of the Doctors Samuel and Ida Gelfand Professorship in October 2024, an endowed position recognizing scholars in emerging areas of scientific inquiry. Rosen is renowned for her pioneering research in bone biology, particularly her work on bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and their roles in the development, maintenance, and repair of musculoskeletal tissues. Before joining HSDM, she was part of the research team at Genetics Institute that identified the BMP genes in 1988. As a respected scientist, educator, and academic leader, she was the first female full professor at HSDM and has served as interim dean, leading the School through the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to her research, Rosen is deeply committed to mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows across multiple disciplines, including DMD, MD, and PhD programs, and is a principal faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

Research topics

• Biology
• Anatomy
• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Cell biology
• Medicine
• Pathology
• Cancer research
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Evolutionary Selection and Constraint on Human Knee Chondrocyte Regulation Impacts Osteoarthritis Risk

  Cell · 2020 · 161 citations

  DOI

• Endothelial cells produce angiocrine factors to regulate bone and cartilage via versatile mechanisms

  Theranostics · 2020 · 104 citations

  Blood vessels are conduits distributed throughout the body, supporting tissue growth and homeostasis by the transport of cells, oxygen and nutrients. Endothelial cells (ECs) form the linings of the blood vessels, and together with pericytes, are essential for organ development and tissue homeostasis through producing paracrine signalling molecules, called angiocrine factors. In the skeletal system, ECs - derived angiocrine factors, combined with bone cells-released angiogenic factors, orchestrat…

  DOI

• A FoxA2+ long-term stem cell population is necessary for growth plate cartilage regeneration after injury

  Nature Communications · 2022 · 52 citations

  Longitudinal bone growth, achieved through endochondral ossification, is accomplished by a cartilaginous structure, the physis or growth plate, comprised of morphologically distinct zones related to chondrocyte function: resting, proliferating and hypertrophic zones. The resting zone is a stem cell-rich region that gives rise to the growth plate, and exhibits regenerative capabilities in response to injury. We discovered a FoxA2+group of long-term skeletal stem cells, situated at the top of rest…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inflammatory cytokines and mechanical injury induce post-traumatic osteoarthritis-like changes in a human cartilage-bone-synovium microphysiological system

  Arthritis Research & Therapy · 2022-08-18 · 41 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Traumatic knee injuries in humans trigger an immediate increase in synovial fluid levels of inflammatory cytokines that accompany impact damage to joint tissues. We developed a human in vitro cartilage-bone-synovium (CBS) coculture model to study the role of mechanical injury and inflammation in the initiation of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA)-like disease. METHODS: Osteochondral plugs (cartilage-bone, CB) along with joint capsule synovium explants (S) were harvested from 25 ca…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Joint disease-specificity at the regulatory base-pair level

  Nature Communications · 2021-07-06 · 34 citations

  articleOpen access

  Given the pleiotropic nature of coding sequences and that many loci exhibit multiple disease associations, it is within non-coding sequence that disease-specificity likely exists. Here, we focus on joint disorders, finding among replicated loci, that GDF5 exhibits over twenty distinct associations, and we identify causal variants for two of its strongest associations, hip dysplasia and knee osteoarthritis. By mapping regulatory regions in joint chondrocytes, we pinpoint two variants (rs4911178;…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• BMP2 signaling of the development of osetoarthritis

  NIH · $216k · 2013–2016

• Adult Bone Mass Regulation by Type 2 BMP Receptors

  NIH · $2.6M · 2014–2020

• NIH Grant R01AR050174

  NIH · $2.3M · 2010

Frequent coauthors

• Laura W. Gamer

  Harvard University

  38 shared

• John M. Wozney

  35 shared

• Karen Cox

  Boston University

  23 shared

• Anthony Celeste

  Boundless Bio (United States)

  17 shared

• Shoichiro Kokabu

  Kyushu Dental University

  15 shared

• Jonathan W. Lowery

  Marian University - Indiana

  15 shared

• Gregory R. Mundy

  14 shared

• Jiake Xu

  Wenzhou Medical University

  14 shared

Awards & honors

• Doctors Samuel and Ida Gelfand Professorship (2024)