After spending a summer in MATLAB staring at bones, working through matrix math, googling new functions, I submitted my first abstract to a conference—the Orthopedic Research Society (ORS). I turned my summer’s work into a one-page document, securing an invitation to present a poster at this 5-day event in Phoenix, AZ.  With support from Research at Brown, the Center for BME, and my lab, I was granted the opportunity to attend the conference and present my findings on the morphological changes of the first metacarpal with the progression of thumb osteoarthritis. I felt proud to have progressed my work to a point where I could contribute to the collaborative field of orthopedics and extremely grateful for the support and mentorship from Dr. J.J. Crisco and my entire lab. 

In addition to presenting a poster at ORS, I attended talks by keynote speakers, listened to presentations on various topics of the orthopedics field, and explored the poster hall with hundreds of posters. ORS granted me the opportunity to explore the world of orthopedics beyond the hand and wrist. I listened to presenters discuss their concussion studies in which researchers followed a high school football team and found that players recalled an average of 2.3 fewer words during their memory test after experiencing over 3 high-impact hits. I attended a lecture focused on osteoarthritis in which a physician retold the story of a patient admitting his legs may as well be cut off because he cannot do anything with them. And I attended a keynote speaker admitting that she understood her research more than her personal relationships. Not only did these presentations demonstrate the broad field encapsulated by musculoskeletal research, they also illustrated the importance of this research to patient’s lives and the dedication it takes to make a difference in the field. 

My most memorable moment of ORS was Dr. Robert Langer’s talk opening the conference. His talk exemplified the power of effective presentation, as the entire audience hung onto his every word. The auditorium was frequently filled with laughter as Dr. Langer enumerated his many failures before his successes and I truly believed him when he said you must fail before you succeed. 

Building relationships with members of my lab as well as with my lab’s collaborators was another highlight of my experience. We frequently discovered delicious restaurants together and took an afternoon away from the conference to hike up Camelback Mountain. Picking their brains and asking about their research experiences was yet another way I formulated new ideas about my future in research and medicine. 

With my experience at ORS, I am able to appreciate the impact musculoskeletal research has on so many lives and am inspired by those who have devoted their time to orthopedics research. I hope in my future, I can also contribute as a future M.D. with an engineering background, to the field of research. 

 

BME student and faculty presentations at ORS 2020:

Poster No. 388: Proteoglycan-4 Inhibits Fibroblast To Myofibroblast Transition And Migration In Response To TGF-beta In A Fibroblast And Macrophage Co-culture Model
Marwa Qadri; Gregory Jay; Tannin Schmidt; Khaled A. Elsaid

Poster No. 463: ACL Size But Not Signal Intensity Is Influenced By Sex, Body Size And Knee Anatomy
Samuel C. Barnett; Martha M. Murray; Braden C. Fleming; Ata M. Kiapour

Poster No. 495: Increased Dorsal Subluxation Of The MC1 Is Associated With Rapid Osteophyte Formation In Trapeziometacarpal OA
Joseph Crisco; Amy Morton; Douglas Moore; Amy Ladd; Arnold-Peter Weiss

Poster No. 668: Extending Viability Of Fresh Cartilage Grafts Using A Novel High-subzero Cryopreservation Approach
Li Yue; Bahar Bilgen; Brian Vuong; Stephanie E.J Cronin; Casie Pendexter; Shannon N. Tessier; Korkut Uygun; Brett D. Owens

Poster No. 683: SDF-1 Preconditioned HPC Scaffolds Mobilize Cartilage-Derived Progenitors And Stimulate Meniscal Fibrocartilage Reintegration In Human Explant Tissue Culture
Cecily Adler; Jake Newberry; Salomi Desai; Neill Li; Jenasis Ortega; Padmini Karamchedu; Braden C. Fleming; Chathuraka T. Jayasuriya

Poster No. 734: Relationship Between Predicted ACL Graft Stiffness And Kinematics At 12-year Follow-up
Jillian E. Beveridge; Analicia L. Behnke; Cristian Maldonado Rodas; Naga Padmini Karamchedu; Sean W. Flannery; Braden C. Fleming

Poster No. 1262: First Metacarpal Volar Beak Recession Is Associated With Rapid Osteophyte Formation In Trapeziometacarpal Osteoarthritis
Leah J. Peipert; Amy M. Morton; Douglas C. Moore; Amy Ladd; Arnold-Peter Weiss; Joseph J. Crisco

Poster No. 1738: Modification Of Biomaterials With Polyelectrolyte Multilayer Films For Controlled Delivery Of Osteolysis Inhibitors
Alexis Fairman; Soobin Wang; Dahlia Alkekhia; Alessia Battigelli; Wentian Yang; Douglas Moore; Valentin Antoci; Dioscaris R. Garcia; Christopher Born; Roy Aaron; Joseph Crisco; Anita Shukla

Poster No. 1782: Effect Of Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs) On Bone Structure In Young Adult And Aged Mice
Jacob Keith Richards Jamison; Yun Gao; Qian Chen

Poster No. 1911: An Improved T2*-based Prediction Model For ACL Failure Load
Sean W. Flannery; Jillian E. Beveridge; Ata M. Kiapour; Naga Padmini Karamchedu; Analicia L. Behnke; Benedikt L. Proffen; Jakob T. Sieker; Martha M. Murray; Braden C. Fleming

Poster No. 2101: Ulnar Variance Changes Nonlinearly With Pronosupination And Center Of Rotation Moves Volarly With Supination Of The Distal Radioulnar Joint
Bardiya Akhbari; Kalpit N. Shah; Amy M. Morton; Douglas C. Moore; Arnold-Peter C. Weiss; Scott W. Wolfe; Joseph J. Crisco

Poster No. 2134: Morphological Changes Of Trapezoid, 2nd Metacarpal And Scaphoid In Thumb Osteoarthritis
Faes D. Kerkhof; Marco T.Y Schneider; Arnold-Peter Weiss; Douglas Moore; Joseph (Trey) Crisco; Amy L. Ladd

Poster No. 2140: The Effect Of Primary And Secondary Stabilizing Ligaments On Wrist Kinematics
Rohit Badida; Bardiya Akhbari; Emil Vutescu; Douglas Moore; Scott W. Wolfe; Joseph J. Crisco

Poster No. 2144: Volar Tilt And Positioning Of Total Wrist Arthroplasty Results In Increase In Wrist Range Of Motion
Bardiya Akhbari; Amy M. Morton; Kalpit N. Shah; Douglas C. Moore; Arnold-Peter C. Weiss; Scott W. Wolfe; Joseph J. Crisco

Poster No. 2461: Lateral Trapeziometacarpal Radiographs Correlate To 3D CT Measures Of Dorsal Subluxation
Edgar Garcia-Lopez; Amy M. Morton; Douglas C. Moore; Amy L. Ladd; Arnold-Peter C. Weiss; Joseph J. Crisco
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Paper No. 144: Repressing Microrna-Dependent Retrotransposon Line-1 for Osteoarthritis Treatment
Yun Gao; Zhiyu Huang; Nan Hu; Pengcheng Liu; Jing Ding; Meng Feng; Kun Yang; Qiling Yuan; Xiaqing Jiang; Cherie Charbonneau; Marco De Cecco; Richard Terek; John Froehlich; Joen M. Sedivy; Qian Chen

Paper No. 319: DLX5 is a Therapeutic Target for Attenuating Hypertrophy and Apoptosis in Mesenchymal Progenitor Cells
John N. Twomey-Kozak; Salomi Desai; Wenguang Liu; Neill Li; Nick Lemme; Qian Chen; Brett Owens; Chathuraka Jayasuriya

Paper No. 354: Promote Schwann Cell Migration in Collagen Conduit with 3d Porous Chemotactic Scaffold of Matrilin-2 and Chitosan for Hand Nerve Repair
Brandon Vorrius; Neill Li; Julie Katarincic; Qian Chen

Paper No. 356: Full Range of Motion in Total Wrist Arthroplasty Requires 2 Cm Shift in Center of Rotation
Bardiya Akhbari; Amy M. Morton; Kalpit N. Shah; Douglas C. Moore; Arnold-Peter C. Weiss; Scott W. Wolfe; Joseph J. Crisco