Ronald June

Montana State University

Ron June has longstanding research interests in osteoarthritis and biomechanics related to improving human health. At Dartmouth College Dr. June studied Engineering Sciences focused on biomechanics and developed a novel wrist protection strategy, contributed to the design and manufacture of a system for monitoring 3D head accelerations in helmeted sports, and helped to develop a finite element model to understand the biomechanics of spinal pain in rats. As a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, Dr. June studied cartilage biomechanics. Specifically, he investigated a novel mechanism of cartilage flow-independent material properties. During the course of this project, he discovered novel biomechanical phenomena and made several experimental observations that are consistent with polymer dynamics as a potential physiological mechanism of cartilage viscoelasticity. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. June has implemented a surgical model of mouse osteoarthritis and studied protein transduction. He developed a pH-sensitive system for intracellular delivery of macromolecules and has investigated protein transduction in cartilage and chondrocytes. Dr. June began at Montana State University in 2011, and his research involves using metabolomic profiling and systems biology to understand osteoarthritis. Specific current projects including analyzing synovial fluid to better understand joint biology and assess biomarkers using statistical learning, as well as both in vitro and in vivo studies of chondrocyte mechanotransduction. Dr. June has been named a GAANN Fellow, NIH Kirchstein Fellow, the Montgomery Street Scholar by the ARCS Foundation, and is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. His long-term research interests lie in understanding cartilage and joint mechanobiology to develop novel therapeutic strategies for joint disease.