University of Florida · Biomedical EngineeringInflammation Insight Lab
Kyle D Allen · Gainesville, Florida
Research Focus
Dr. Kyle D. Allen's lab at the University of Florida focuses on understanding and treating knee osteoarthritis (OA) and chronic joint pain, particularly in the knee and temporomandibular joint (TMJ). They are developing innovative approaches to deliver a special enzyme directly into the joints to reduce inflammation and improve joint health. The lab combines techniques from engineering and biology to study how nerves interact with joint tissues and how these interactions can affect pain and disability.
knee osteoarthritischronic joint painimmunosuppressive enzymejoint inflammationnerve innervationmetabolic reprogrammingneural tracing3D imagingAAV-based tracerspain assessment
Research Aims
5AIM 01Develop a therapeutic strategy using an immunosuppressive enzyme to reduce joint inflammation in osteoarthritis.
AIM 02Investigate the effects of enzyme delivery on joint metabolic processes and immune cell regulation.
AIM 03Examine the innervation patterns in osteoarthritis to understand pain mechanisms.
AIM 04Evaluate the potential of enzyme delivery to prevent post-traumatic osteoarthritis after joint injury.
AIM 05Analyze the relationship between joint innervation, pain, and disability in both preclinical models and human patients.
Skills the Lab Values
intra-articular injectionsenzyme delivery systemsneural tracingsingle cell RNA sequencingrodent behavioral analysis3D imaging techniquesstatistical software (e.g., R, Python)bioinformaticshistological analysiselectrophysiology
Output against the department
Publications158bottom 35% of dept.385th of 595
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations2.3kbottom 18% of dept.490th of 595
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.