• January 2010 - We are pleased to learn of the promotion of Dr. Jun Chen to Associate Professor! Dr. Chen is most deserving of this promotion and we are happy for her.

• November 2009 - Congratulations to Dr. Chris Gilchrist on the occasion of his thesis defense. Chris did a great job presenting his doctoral work on intervertebral disc cell attachment to and interactions with laminin substrates.

• September 2009 - Congratulations to 2nd year doctoral student, Michael Sinclair, for his receipt of the competitive Howard G. Clark pre-doctoral fellowship from the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Clark, a founding member of BME at Duke, should be very proud of the choice!

• October 2009 - Congratulations to Dr. Kyle Allen, Michael Sinclair and Ashley Holmstrom for three fantastic podium presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society! Students Aubrey Francisco, Brian Chon and Shaun Lim also presented posters of their work on a diversity of topics from novel cell selection strategies and biomaterial development, to monitoring animal behaviors in models of radiculopathy and arthritis.

• September 2009 - The laboratory's work on gait and behavioral assessments in a model of arthritis, together with findings for inflammatory cytokine expression in human intervertebral disc cells was presented at the World Congress on Osteoarthritis in Montreal. Congratulations to Dr. Kyle Allen and Michael Sinclair for their presentations.

• July 2009 - The laboratory congratulates Steve on the birth of his grandson, Stephen Lee Baker, born July 27th at 9:45AM! Everyone is healthy and doing well. We wish the best to the Johnson and Baker families.

• July 2009 - Congratulations to Dr. Kyle Allen who received a 5-year K99/R00 grant from the NIH to study Function and Behavior Phenotype of Inflammatory Arthritis in the Rat Knee and TMJ. This is a much-deserved award for years of efforts and innovating findings. We look forward to seeing more exciting research in the future!

• May 2009 - Congratulations to our most recent graduates of the Laboratory, Dr. Li Cao and Dr. Dr. Mohammed Shamji. We also send our best to graduates, Dr. Frank Moutos, Srujana Reddy and Antonia Helbling. We will miss you all!

• April 2009: Kyle Allen was awarded the 2009 Kewaunee Postdoctoral Achievement Award for his outstanding scholarship and contributions to mentoring and leadership in the post-doctoral associate community at Duke. We are all proud of you, Dr. Allen!

• March 2009: The laboratory's work on characterization of inflammatory cytokine expression in the human intervertebral disc is assigned one of Top 3 Outstanding Papers at the AANS/CNS SpineSection meeting. This work was led by Dr. Mohammed Shamji, and reflects a collaboration with Duke orthopaedic and neurosurgeons, Drs. Richardson, Isaacs, Brown, and Jarvis as well as Dr. Chen and collaborating staff of the laboratory (Liufang Jing, Robert Bullock, Stephen So). This was an extensive project with alot of dedicated individuals - congratulations to all for the recognition.

• February 2009: Mohammed Shamji (Dr. Dr. and lab alum) has received the most prestigious Ronald Apfelbaum Award from the AANS/CNS Section on Disorders of the Spine and Peripheral Nerves so that he may continue his work with delivery of anti-inflammatory protein drug delivery for the treatment of disc herniation. Congratulations Dr. Dr.!

• November 2008: Congratulations to Dr. Li Cao on the occasion of her thesis defense. We wish you well in your next research opportunity as a post-doctoral research fellow with Dr. Truskey.

• September 2008:  Congratulations to 2nd year doctoral student, Aubrey Francisco, for her receipt of a competitive pre-doctoral fellowship from the Center for Biomolecular and Tissue Engineering.

• September 2008: The Laboratory is delighted to learn that Dr. Mohammed Shamji has received the WE Collins Top Paper Award for the 2008 Annual Research Day at the Ottawa Hospital. This marks the second time that Mohammed has earned this award, this time for his work on animal models of radiculopathy.

• September 2008: The laboratory was recently awarded an NIH grant entitled, "Thermally-Triggered Intra-Articular Drug Delivery for OA ." This project is part of a
  5-year collaborative Program Project Grant led by Dr. Farshid Guilak entitled, "Biomechanics and Inflammation in Osteoarthritis." This project will bring together
  work from Drs. Guilak, Virginia Kraus (Rheumatology), Frank Keefe (Psychiatry) and other investigators to develop new strategies to antagonize inflammatory effects in joint disease.

• September 2008: Congratulations to Drs. Mohammed Shamji and Li Cao on the successful defense of their doctoral dissertations! We look forward to seeing you at graduation ceremonies in May 2009.

• August 2008: Congratulations to Dr. Samuel Adams for his recent selection as the only resident member of the AAOS Research Development Committee.