People Faculty

STEVEN ABRAMOWITCH, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Musculoskeletal Research Center, Department of Bioengineering
Assistant Professor, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences

Email: Phone: (412) 383-9618 Fax: (412) 648-2001 Office: CNBIO 409

Education

B.S. (Applied Mathematics), University of Pittsburgh, 1998
Ph.D. (Bioengineering), University of Pittsburgh, 2004

Professional Interests

Dr. Abramowitch’s research is aimed at elucidating the processes of injury, disease, and healing of connective tissues through an understanding of tissue mechanics and the complex relationships between composition, structure, and function.  He is particularly interested in utilizing this information to establish new clinical treatment strategies and rehabilitation protocols to improve patient care in the fields of Orthopaedics and Urogynecology.

Dr. Abramowitch directs the Tissue Mechanics Laboratory in the Musculoskeletal Research Center where much of his work has been in the area of functional tissue engineering. More specifically, he is interested in using of bioscaffolds to enhance the healing of ligaments and tissues of the pelvic floor.  In addition, Dr. Abramowitch has made significant advances in the use viscoelastic theories to describe tissue mechanical behavior and evaluate the effectiveness of tissue engineering strategies.

Currently, Dr. Abramowitch is a Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) Fellow.  Through this fellowship he hopes to contribute to clinically relevant advances in our current understanding of disorders of the pelvic floor in females through a multidisciplinary framework that integrates his background in experimental and computational biomechanics with basic biological and clinical research.  His current focus is to incorporate a biological, biochemical, and clinical perspective into his work in order to develop sophisticated, predictive, computational models, which encompass multiple biological scales to describe the development and progression of pelvic organ prolapse (POP).  Such multiscale models can then be utilized to better understand the disease process, as well as diagnose and treat patients with POP.

Selected Publications

• Alperin, M., Debes, K., Abramowitch, S.D., Meyn, L., Moalli, P.:  LOXL1 Deficiency Negatively Impacts the Biomechanical Properties of the Mouse Vagina and Supportive Tissues.  International Urogynecology Journal, Accepted, January 2008.
• Moalli, P., Papas, N., Menefee, S., Albo, M., Meyn, L., Abramowitch, S.D.: Tensile Properties of Six Commonly Used Mid-Urethral Slings. International Urogynecology Journal, Accepted, June 2007.
• Karaoglu, S., Fisher, M.B., Woo, S.L-Y., Fu, Y.C., Liang, R., Abramowitch, S.D.:  Use of a Bioscaffold to Improve Healing of a Patellar Tendon Defect After Graft Harvest for ACL Reconstruction: A Study in Rabbits.  Journal of Orthopaedic Research, In Press, June 2007. 
• Lowder, J.L., Moon, D.K., Debes, K.M., Howden, N.S., Abramowitch, S.D., Moalli, P.A.: The Impact of Pregnancy, Delivery and Recovery on the Biomechanical Properties of the Vagina and Supportive Tissues in a Rat Model. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 109: 136-143, 2007.
• Liang, R.,Woo, S.L-Y., Takakura, Y., Moon, D.K., Jia, F., Abramowitch, S.D.: The Long Term Effects of Porcine Small Intestine Submucosa on the Healing of Medial Collateral Ligament: A Functional Tissue Engineering Study.  Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 24(4): 811-819, 2006.
• Woo, S.L-Y., Abramowitch, S.D., Kilger, R., and Liang, R.: Biomechanics of Knee Ligaments: Injury, Healing, and Repair (Review Article).  Journal of Biomechanics, 39(1): 1-20, 2006.
• Moalli, P.A., Howden, N.S., Navarro, J., Debes, K.M., Abramowitch, S.D., and Woo, S.L-Y.: A Rat Model to Study the Structural Properties of the Vagina and its Supportive Tissues.  American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 192(1): 80-88, 2005.
• Abramowitch, S.D., Woo, S.L-Y., Clineff, T.D., and Debski, R.E.:  An Evaluation of the Quasi-linear Viscoelastic Properties of the Healing Medial Collateral Ligament in a Goat Model.  Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 32(3): 329-335, 2004.
• Abramowitch, S.D. and Woo, S.L-Y.:  An Improved Method to Analyze the Stress Relaxation of Ligaments Following a Finite Ramp Time Based on the Quasi-Linear Viscoelastic Theory.  Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, 126(1): 92-97, 2004.
• Musahl, V., Abramowitch, S.D., Gilbert, T.W., Tsuda, E., Wang, J.H-C., Badylak, S.F., and Woo, S.L-Y.:  The use of Porcine SIS to Enhance the Healing MCL- A Functional Tissue Engineering Study in Rabbits.  Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 22(1): 214-220, 2004.
• Abramowitch, S.D., Yagi, M., Tsuda E., and Woo, S.L-Y.:  The Healing Medial Collateral Ligament Following a Combined Anterior Cruciate and Medial Collateral Ligament Injury- A Biomechanical Study in a Goat Model.  Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 21(6): 1124-1130, 2003.
• Abramowitch, S.D., Papageorgiou, C.D., Debski R.E., Clineff, T.D. and Woo, S.L-Y.:  A Biomechanical and Histological Evaluation of the Structure and Function of the Healing Medial Collateral Ligament in a Goat Model.  Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, 11:155-162, 2003.
• Abramowitch, S.D., Papageorgiou, C.D., Withrow, J.D., Gilbert, T.W. and Woo, S.L-Y.:  The Effect of Initial Graft Tension on the Biomechanical Properties of a Healing ACL Replacement Graft:  A Study in Goats.  Journal of Orthopaedic Research, 21(4): 708-715, 2003.