A new study by the Bone Group led by Dr Ken Poole,  has shed light on the way in which people with a specific type of osteoporosis are likely to experience weakness in their bones that increases their chances of suffering a fracture.

The research, which was funded by Arthritis Research UK,  and is the result of collaboration between Engineering and Medicine was published in ‘Bone’ in November 2016, and has shown how further examination of bone quality might in future help to identify which patients may be at greatest risk of a hip fracture.

(press release)

The annual network meeting, on the theme of Interdisciplinary Research in Musculoskeletal Science, was held on Friday 2nd December 2016 at Buckingham House, Murray Edwards College. Attended by 50 members of the network from across the Schools of the University, Professor Andrew McCaskie gave an introductory talk explaining the aims of the network, and outlined the multidisciplinary nature of the translational research that is taking place within the University of Cambridge towards alleviating the suffering caused by Osteoarthritis.

Talks demonstrating the value of collaborative working across disciplines in musculoskeletal science were given by Dr James MacKay, who spoke about MRI of knee osteoarthritis for experimental medicine studies, Dr Eleftheria Zeggini who talked about Progress in understanding the genomic landscape of osteoarthritis, Alex Justin and Dr Roger Brooks who spoke about a Multi-casting approach for vascular networks in cellularized hydrogels, and Professor Melinda Duer who asked: What role do metabolic acids play in mineral structure of bone?

There were poster presentations by Sophie Hackinger (Sanger); Francesca Beaton (Division of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery); Dr Andrew Gilllis (Department of Zoology); Dr Michael Sutcliffe (Department of Engineering); Dr Konstantinos Hatzikotoulos (Sanger); Dr Graham Treece  (Department of Engineering); Sophie Frankham-Wells (Division of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery); Ilya Burkov (Bone Group); and Dr Tim Linsday ( Division of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery) and these were the catalyst for interaction and lively discussion afterwards.

Dr Fran Henson will speak at the 10th Oswestry Cartilage Symposium: Quality of Cartilage repair on 24th-25th November 2016.

A symposium on outcome measures of healing and healed cartilage

Quantification of healing is essential for progress in chondrocyte and stem cell techniques of repair and all attempts to slow the progression of arthritis.  The focus of this two day symposium is on imaging and histology of cartilage in humans and on novel quantitative approaches in animal models or in vitro techniques of cartilage formation.

St Catharine’s College hosted a second Cambridge University Engineering Department Bioengineering seminar on 10th March 2016. The event was attended by around 70 people, with a mix of engineers, clinical and biological scientists. The wide range of bioengineering activities being undertaken in the Engineering Department was highlighted, with topics ranging from improved image analysis of CT images containing artefacts due to metal implants (Dr Graham Treece) to a study of the structure and strength of trabecular bone (Prof Chris Burgoyne). The meeting concluded with a talk by Prof Sir Mark Welland on Engineering nanoparticles for therapeutics, appropriately as he prepares to take over being Master at St Catharine’s this October.

The full programme is given at

http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~mpfs/BioengineeringSeminar.htm; further details from Dr Michael Sutcliffe (mpfs@eng.cam.ac.uk)Bioengineering seminar

The Department of Surgery will be hosting an Interdisciplinary Research Workshop on Thursday March 24th at 13:00-17:00 at the Clinical School. The aim of this workshop is to encourage multi-disciplinary collaborations between investigators from the Department of Surgery and those from other departments and institutions across the Cambridge Biomedical Campus

Dr Roger Brooks and Dr Athina Markaki chaired a session on the Development of vascularisation strategies for tissue engineering constructs with Prof Dr C. James Kirkpatrick at the TERMIS World Congress meeting.

The 4th TERMIS World Congress event, which was held from September 8th- 11th in Boston, MA, was entitled “Past, Present Future: The Evolution of Regenerative Medicine,” and aimed to reflect the impact of tissue engineering throughout the past two decades, and focus on the future. The 2015 scientific program centred on the innovative technologies found in regenerative medicine.

The TERMIS World Congress Meeting is held every three years, and brings together researchers, scientists, trainees, and students from both academia and industry to discuss critical developments in the field.

Abstracts are published in Tissue Engineering Part A Vol 21 Issue S1