​​Justin Parreno, Assistant Professor of Biology, leads a multidisciplinary group that investigates biomechanical signaling pathways in Musculoskeletal and Ocular Disease Processes. He has received a $2.4 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health in collaboration with Dawn Elliott in Biomedical Engineering, to study how mechanical overloading of tendons leads to chronic tissue degeneration and clinical disorders including tendinopathy or tendon rupture, conditions affecting nearly a third of physically active individuals.​.