Orthopaedic Research Newsletter

February 2024

Orthopaedic Research Society Annual Meeting 

ORS.mp4

ORS 2024 Annual Meeting 

This year's Orthopaedic Research Society annual meeting was held at the Long Beach Convention Centre on February 2, 2024, in Long Beach, California. The ORS annual meeting brings the orthopaedic community together for 3 1/2 days of workshops, learning sessions, networking, and advocacy.  The U of M Department of Orthopaedic Surgery faculty, staff, and trainees were authors/presenters on more than 30 presentations that were given (orals, posters, symposia, keynotes), representing more than 1% of the science presented at the entire meeting attended by over 2,700 people from 30 different countries. Save the date for next year's ORS 2025 annual meeting on February 7, 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona!

Congratulations!

Congratulations Stephanie Steltzer! 

ORS/ON Foundation Education Grant 

Stephanie was a Tendon Section Award winner for her excellent motivation letter that she wrote from her research in orthopaedics. She received the ORS/ON Foundation Education Grant for travel expenses to the ORS annual meeting. 

Michigan Space Grant Consortium Graduate Fellowship

In addition, Steph has been awarded a competitive state-wide award recognizing research relevant to NASA's strategic interests including extending human health in space!  Many congratulations, Steph!

Congratulations Dr. Alex Knights!

ORS/ON Foundation Education Grant

New Investigator Research Award

ARRIVE Award

Congratulations to Dr. Knights for receiving three prestigious awards at the annual ORS meeting! Winning the ORS/ON Foundation Education Award, the New Investigator Research Award (NIRA), and the ORS Preclinical Models Section Podium Award (ARRIVE) is a remarkable achievement and a testament to Dr. Knights' dedication and excellence in both education and research. Additionally, Dr. Knights' highlighted work demonstrating exceptional thoughtfulness about animal care, use, and welfare. Well done, Dr. Knights! 

Congratulations Lindsey Lammlin

Susan Lipschutz Award

Lindsey is our 3rd-year Physiology PhD student and Orthopaedic Research Lab veteran. She has been awarded the Susan Lipschutz Award. This award is for outstanding women graduate students. It recognizes Rackham students who have demonstrated exceptional scholarly achievement, a sense of social responsibility and service, and a lively interest in promoting the success of women in the academic community. Lindsey has been not just a rigorous and productive scientist, but also a strong and thoughtful mentor for our junior lab members. She has especially emphasized her mentorship of women, promoting their path into and through academic science. She does this within the University and at external venues, including the Perry Initiative and via the Orthopaedic Research Society. This award recognizes Lindsey’s above-and-beyond mentality in these mentorship efforts. Congratulation Lindsey!

Congratulations Hsiao H. Sung!

Featured in ASBMR Weekly Update

Hsiao's groundbreaking paper on craniofacial phenotypes in OI mice has been featured in the ASBMR Weekly Update on February 15, 2024. This is a remarkable achievement and a testament to Hsiao's dedication and hard work. Congratulations Hsiao on this well-deserved recognition!  To review Hsiao's article, click this link: ASBMR Article 

Research Highlight

Ken Kozloff, PhD 

Steven A. Goldstein Ph.D. Collegiate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery

Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kinesiology, and Biomedical Engineering 

Dr. Ken Kozloff has been with the department since 2007His research focuses on the regulation and measurement of bone mass and quality as it relates to diseases of genetic, hormonal, or mechanical origin. His research interests are below. 

Research Interest: 


In 2018, Dr. Kozloff was interested in applying what he had learned about bone fragility in OI to gain a better understanding of the development of bone stress injuries in runners.  He initiated a collaboration with the Exercise and Sport Science Initiative (ESSI) and the Michigan Athletic Department to study stress fractures in the men’s and women’s cross-country teams.  Now, as Co-Director of the newly renamed Human Performance & Sport Science Center (HPSSC, formerly ESSI), he has grown his research program to include human models of exercise physiology, often with the integration of wearable technology as a tool to objectively measure features associated with training. Partnering closely with Dr. Adam Lepley in the School of Kinesiology, these studies have been well supported through the University of Michigan Biosciences Initiative, as well as through industry partners, including Apple, Samsung, and Oura. Their most recent work has been presented at the 2024 Orthopaedic Research Society Annual Meeting where they show associations between bone turnover markers in runners and subsequent risk of bone stress injury throughout the year.  Together, his lab is integrating basic science principles with applied techniques to develop translational knowledge to help understand the extremes of human health and performance.

John A. Grant, MD, PhD, FRCSC

Associate Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, Sports Medicine 

John A. Grant, MD, PhD, FRCSC, Dip. Sport Med., has been with the department since 2011. He is a fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeon whose practice includes sports medicine and shoulder surgery with a focus on complex knee and cartilage/joint preservation surgery.  

Research Interest: 

In addition to general knee and shoulder sports medicine surgery, Dr. John Grant’s clinical niche focuses on complex knee injuries. This primarily involves multi-ligamentous knee injuries (knee dislocations), lower extremity realignment, and joint preservation/cartilage transplant. His research program parallels this niche, both in clinical and translational research. On the clinical side, he is the site PI for multiple multi-center randomized clinical trials with both governmental (NIAMS, DoD) and industry funding. These include: 1) the STaR trial comparing early vs delayed reconstructive surgery and early vs delayed weight-bearing and range of motion for multi-ligamentous knee injuries; 2) the STABILITY II trial comparing the use of patellar tendon and quadriceps tendon autografts, with or without a Lateral Extra-articular tenodesis (LET) in young high-risk patients with ACL injuries; and 3) the Novocart 3D Phase III trial assessing the success of a new autologous chondrocyte implantation treatment for full-thickness cartilage defects of the distal femur. Chris Ray is our MedSport CRC who is heavily involved in running these three trials. Calling on Dr. Grant’s undergraduate and graduate studies in exercise physiology and orthopaedic post-op rehab, he has also been working with two of our MedSport Physical Therapists to use our large database of ACL return to sport assessments to evaluate predictors of reinjury after return to sport in these patients. On the translational research side, he developed a program of studies aimed at using nanoCT imaging to evaluate the cartilage and bone thickness and surface contour matching of osteochondral allograft (OCA) transplants in the knee to help optimize the use of live tissue donations. Cartilage injuries are much more common on the medial femoral condyle (MFC) than the lateral femoral condyle (LFC) which sets up a supply:demand mismatch for OCA grafts. To help surgeons and patients get tissue matches quicker, they have studied the ability to use a size-matched contralateral LFC for MFC lesions. This also helps reduce the number of LFC tissue donations that go unused helping to maximize the gift that tissue donors provide. Conor Locke has played a large role in the development of these imaging protocols and analyses (along with help from Rob and Andrea). Dr. Grant is currently planning on expanding these studies to include biomechanical analyses.

Welcome New Orthopaedic Research Member!

Amit Chougule, PhD

Research Fellow

Dr. Amit S. Chougule (he/him) is a molecular cell biologist with over 8 years of research experience in Bone Biology, Energy Metabolism, and Signal Transduction. He earned his bachelor's degree in biotechnology from India in 2012, followed by a master’s in biomedical science in 2015 and a PhD in Molecular Medicine in 2020, both from the University of Toledo, OH. Additionally, he is certified as a molecular technologist by the American Society for Clinical Pathology.

 

During his doctoral studies, he was mentored by Dr. Lecka-Czernik. His research focused on PPAR-alpha and Carboxypeptidase-E proteins, investigating their roles in regulating energy metabolism and bone metabolism simultaneously. In his first postdoctoral tenure at Henry Ford Health in Detroit (2020-2023), he was mentored by Dr. Gardinier. His research focused on identifying signaling pathways integral to osteocyte mechanosensation, with a particular interest in the role of the P2Y2 receptor and its downstream signaling. Concurrently, he held an adjunct research associate position at Michigan State University in 2023.

 

At the University of Michigan, Amit is appointed as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and his main project is focused on the multi-institutional DoD grant where he will elucidate the role of TSP1/2 proteins in fracture repair and following joint injury. He will be mentored by Dr. Kurt Hankenson, Dr. Tristan Maerz, and Dr. Andrea Alford. Similarly, he aims to leverage his expertise in bone physiology, energy metabolism, and mechanotransduction to make valuable contributions to the project while developing his unique niche in research.

 

During his leisure time, Amit engages in musical hobbies, playing the keyboard and guitar while composing melodies. He maintains an active lifestyle through running and has a strong affinity for American football, being a dedicated supporter of the Michigan Wolverines, Toledo Rockets, and Detroit Lions.

Carlisle (Carli) DeJulius, PhD 

Research Fellow

Dr. Carli DeJulius (she/her) is the new postdoc in the Maerz laboratory. She is originally from northeast Ohio and received her bachelor's degree in biomedical engineering at the University of Akron. From there, she worked on her PhD at Vanderbilt University under Craig Duvall, where she studied sustained-release drug delivery systems for local treatment of glaucoma and osteoarthritis. She is excited to further investigate new treatments for arthropathies here in ORL! Outside of the lab, she enjoys running, cooking, and walking her two dogs. 


Jepsen Lab & Histology Core Relocation

North Campus Research Complex

Dr. Jepsen's laboratory and the Histology Core have relocated to the North Campus Research Complex (NCRC), temporarily to Building 25 as the permanent location in Building 20 is being renovated. This move is part of a larger effort wherein Drs. Killian, Abraham, and Jepsen will move their labs to the NCRC, Building 20, by the Fall of 2024. This move will create new adjacencies of our Orthopaedic research enterprise to other groups such as the Caswell Diabetes Institute, the Michigan Neuroscience Institute, the Institute for Heart and Brain Health, Biointerfaces, IHPI, the Biomedical & Clinical Informatics Lab, and a bone-adipocyte-obesity thematic cluster. The new Killian-Abraham-Jepsen labs will also be adjacent to the new PM&R research team being led by Dr. Nitin Jain. 

 

The move will also improve access to the Histology Core and the Imaging Core that many Orthopaedic faculty have to come rely on, making it easier for clinicians and residents to utilize these valuable resources. The Histology core has been supporting the Orthopaedic research enterprise for several decades since it was created by Dr. Steve Goldstein in the 1980s. Under the leadership of Carol Whitinger and Emma Snyder-White, the Histology Core has expanded its services in support of Orthopaedic research and is the most productive service within the Michigan Integrative Musculoskeletal Health Core Center (MiMHC, supported by an NIH/NIAMS P30 grant). The Histology Core's attention to detail, fast turnaround, and outstanding quality not only support the research efforts of many Orthopaedic faculty, clinicians, and residents but have also attracted the interest of researchers from around the country. Access to the Histology Core is a primary reason for new membership into the MiMHC. Congrats to Carol and Emma for making our Histology Core a go-to destination for musculoskeletal embedding, sectioning, and staining!  If you're not familiar with the services offered by the Histology Core, please visit our website (https://mimhc.med.umich.edu/).

 

There is easy and ample parking at the NCRC (https://ncrc.umich.edu/maps-directions) so please stop by and say hello as you travel to/from the hill.

Chinese New Year

Lunar New Year

Orthopaedic research manager, Melissa Li, along with her colleague, Jiawei Ribaudo, hosted an event about the Lunar New Year (the Year of the Dragon) celebration. Have you ever wondered about the Lunar New Year celebration? Are you curious about taboos during the Lunar New Year celebration and do you want to know how to avoid them? What about dos/don’ts when gifting Chinese colleagues? Do you know what numbers are lucky or unlucky in a Chinese context? Watch the recorded session to delve into Chinese culture and decode many rules/practices you may not know. Decoding Chinese Culture

Staff Celebrations! 

Jepsen Lab

Jepsen lab celebrates Karl as he crosses into a new decade! 

Lunar New Year

The ORL team marked the Chinese New Year festivities by adorning their lab and offices with vibrant red decorations, symbolizing good fortune and spreading joy for the start of the new year! 

Baby Announcement!

Congratulations to parents 

Alex and Adelaide Knights! 

Welcome Baby: August Montgomery Knights 

Born: 1/10/24  Weight: 7lbs 10oz

Kit is excited to become a big brother to baby August!

Procurement & Finance 

Procurement & Finance Policy Reminders

 

 

Workplace Safety Procedures

As part of our commitment to ensuring a safe and healthy workplace environment, the Lab Safety Training Session on February 20 was attended by over 30 team members. During the session, we reviewed crucial workplace safety procedures to uphold our standards of safety excellence. 

For those who were unable to attend the training session, we want to ensure that you still have access to the essential safety reminders discussed. Please take a moment to review the following training session: Lab Safety Training Session 

Your commitment to prioritizing safety in the workplace is greatly appreciated. Together, we can ensure a secure and healthy environment for all team members. 

Recent Publications

Upcoming Funding Opportunities and Deadlines


Friendly February

This month's theme is "Friendly February".  I encourage you to (re)connect with your friends this February. Send a message to let them know you are thinking of them, reach out to an old friend, or thank them and let them know how they made a difference.  I challenge you to complete at least 2 of these actions this February

A friend is what the heart needs all the time”. -Henry Van Dyke.  

Administrative Team

Melissa Li

Research Manager

for research operations

Kaileigh Stuchlik

Research Admin Manager

for research administration

Andrea Rusnak

Clinical Research Project Manager 

for clinical research

Sarah Boston

Admin Assistant Specialist 

for admin support