Benjamin Alman

Administrative Assistant: Val Cabral, 416 978-8909, val.cabral@sickkids.ca

Research Synopsis

Dr. Alman is an orthopaedic clinician-scientist, whose research focuses on understanding role of developmentally important processes in pathologic and reparative process involving the musculoskeletal system. 

The long-term goal of his work is to use this knowledge to identify improved therapeutic approaches to orthopaedic disorders. 

He makes extensive use of genetically modified mice to model human disease, and has used this approach to identify new drug therapies for musculoskeletal tumors and to improve the repair process in cartilage, skin, and bone.  He also works on cellular heterogeneity in sarcomas, and has identified a subpopulation of tumor initiating cells in musculoskeletal tumors. In this work, he also has identified specific cell populations that are responsible for joint and bone development. 

Dr Alman studies how processes important in normal development are recapitulated in repair processes or dysregulated in pathologic processes involving the musculoskeletal system. The Alman lab is unraveling the role of signaling pathways such as Wnt and hedgehog, in stem cells, during embryonic development, in tissue repair and regeneration, as well as in neoplasia.