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Jared Zitnay

Jared Zitnay, PhD

Jared earned his Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering degree from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  There he conducted undergraduate research in Prof. Victor Barocas’ laboratory studying the mechanics of the intervertebral disc and facet capsular ligament in the lumbar spine.  Also, during his time in Minnesota, Jared worked as a student technician for the Department of Biomedical Engineering’s Tissue Mechanics Laboratory.  In 2014, he came to the University of Utah to join the Biomedical Engineering PhD program.  Under the mentorship of Prof. Jeff Weiss’, he studied the basic mechanisms of mechanical damage in tendons.  Through an interdisciplinary collaboration with Prof. Michael Yu’s (U of Utah) and Prof. Markus Buehler’s (MIT) laboratories, Jared’s research employed a novel triple-helical peptide hybridization method to detect denatured collagens and identified mechanical unfolding of the collagen triple-helix as a fundamental mechanism of damage in tendons.  After finishing earning his PhD in 2020, Jared joined Dr. Heath Henninger’s group in the Orthopaedic Research Laboratory where he is investigating the biomechanics of rotator cuff repair and reverse total shoulder arthroplasty.  In his free time, Jared enjoys exploring Utah’s mountains and deserts with his wife and dog and singing in a local community choir.