[2] He has published hundreds of scientific articles detailing structure-function relationships and tissue engineering approaches for articular cartilage, the knee meniscus, and the temporomandibular joint.
Upon obtaining his Ph.D. in early 1989, Athanasiou became an assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
(TMJ disc degeneration and meniscus injuries result in arthritic-like diseases that strike otherwise healthy young adults.)
[6][7] Their group also demonstrated that hydrostatic pressure in conjunction with growth factors can have synergistic effects on the functional properties of engineered cartilage.
More recently, the Athanasiou group showed the engineering of articular cartilage with biomechanical tensile properties on par with native tissue; the work was published in Nature Materials.
[9] In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Athanasiou showed that the matrix of a number of musculoskeletal tissues can be crosslinked with exogenous methods using lysyl oxidase L2.
[11] In addition to his academic accomplishments, Athanasiou is known for his significant contributions in co-founding fifteen companies based on technologies co-developed by his group.
His first company Osteobiologics, founded in 1993, was based, among other inventions, on the development of acellular scaffolds for the treatment of focal cartilage lesions.