Affiliation: University Medical Center Ulm, Institute of Orthopaedic Research and Biomechanics

Dr. Melanie Haffner-Luntzer received her PhD in Molecular Medicine from Ulm University (Germany) in 2015, where she studied the influence of the pro-inflammatory and anti-osteogenic molecule Midkine on bone and fracture healing.

She conducted her postdoctoral research at the Institute of Orthopaedic Research at University Medical Center Ulm (Germany). One of her projects investigated the pathomechanisms of delayed fracture healing in postmenopausal subjects. Besides the direct negative effects of estrogen-deficiency on bone formation, her previous work demonstrated a misbalanced inflammatory response after bone fracture. Inflammatory cytokines were significantly increased after fracture both in mice and human fracture patients. The results may contribute to new therapeutic strategies to prevent healing complications in postmenopausal women. Another project investigated the effects of chronic psychosocial stress on bone homeostasis and bone regeneration. In 2019, she conducted a study to establish a novel mouse model for metaphyseal fracture healing as a Visiting Scholar at the Orthopaedic Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco (USA).

In 2019, she was promoted to lecturer at Ulm University and to the head of the bone regeneration group at the Institute of Orthopaedic Research and Biomechanics, University Medical Center Ulm (Germany). Her research focused on molecular mechanisms involved in fracture healing, bone homeostasis and osteoporosis.