Ron Noah Alkalay, PhD

Dr. Alkalay received his Ph.D. in Biomaterials from Queen Mary and Westfield College, London University, UK, in 1997, studying the biomechanics of Spinal instrumentation. Dr Alkalay completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Advanced Orthopaedic Studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alkalay's current appointment is as an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

       Dr. Alkalay's research interests focus on how metastatic neoplasms, aging, and trauma affect the structure, function, and, ultimately, the spinal joint's failure. His work incorporates extensive biomechanical experimentation, the application of Finite Element and analytical computational simulation, application of individualized musculoskeletal spine models to predict the patients' vertebral-specific loading in daily tasks, and the development of machine learning approaches for the segmentation and longitudinal registration and classification of bone lesions and vertebral fractures in cancer patients, all of which are derived from pre-clinical and patient-based computer Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

       This research has direct implications for advancing the development of precise, patient-specific, prognostic protocols for predicting the risk of pathologic vertebral failure, the onset and worsening of cancer-induced mechanical bone pain, a cardinal sign of spinal instability, and the effect of treatment methods used to manage these patients on this risk. His work further investigates the use of advanced, biomechanically-based, MR imaging for the development of diagnostic protocols for evaluating degenerative disease of the intervertebral disc, a critical component of adult back pain. These research areas form the basis for the current work performed in the Alkalay Lab.