NEWS: In August 2026, the Manafzadeh Lab will open its doors in the School of Biological Sciences at Georgia Tech!

Slithering, sprinting, swimming, soaring – virtually all vertebrate animal motion relies on the joints that hold our skeletons together. However, despite physicians’ ability to repair torn ACLs and replace faulty hips in humans, we have a surprisingly poor understanding of how joints work at a basic level. Disentangling how the structure of joints relates to their function is essential to explaining the anatomical basis of adaptations, attributing functional diversity to differences in morphology versus behavioral plasticity, and anticipating how animals will move and migrate through risky and ever-changing environments.

‍Our goal is to figure out how joints work and where they come from – both evolutionarily and developmentally.