Translational Orthopaedic Research Laboratory
Part of the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State University and UNC-Chapel Hill
Valli’s poster was recognized during The Comparative Medicine Institute (CMI)’s Research, Education & Innovation Summit. Her work with Melika and Ramair (from Danny Freytes’ lab) titled “Developing an Acellular Therapeutic for Intra-Articular Healing Through the Combination of Matrix-Bound Vesicles and Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes” was awarded third place in the Undergraduate Poster Award competition.
Jacob was recently recognized with a BME Graduate Student Service Award. We know he’s awesome, but it’s always nice when others realize it!
Jacob Thompson has contributed to service broadly at NC State. He serves as the Associate Member Board President of the Comparative Medicine Institute. In this role, he represents students at the CMI Executive Committee meetings. In 2022, he also organized the Catalyze Entrepreneurship Competition. This is an event designed to provide seed funding to enable commercialization of university research. He is also the Budget Coordinator within the Scientific Research & Education Network (SciREN), which links university labs to K-12 educators.
BME is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024! As such, our annual retreat was an even bigger event that normal. TORL had four undergrads present their research during the poster session.
Rachel was even awarded a BME Retreat Poster award
Obviously we had to take group photos with the human-sized BME letters.
In the second photo, we were told to pose for a funny photo and apparently several of this took to mean we should hide behind the letters.
The annual Biomaterials Day retreat was recently held at NC State. We had several lab members attend, and Sam even won an award for her research looking at the relationship between macro and micro mechanical properties of the equine superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT). She was awarded the Most Outstanding Undergraduate Presentation award!
Four of our undergrads were recently named as Abrams Scholars.
Sofie will be working with Melika to look at the use of synthetic platelets in vitro as a novel ACL injury therapeutic treatment.
Rachel and Elizabeth are working on the ACL project to look at biochemical and histological changes to the meniscus following ACL injury.
Sam will be continuing the work she started with Zack. She will be doing a multiscale mechanical analysis of equine superficial digital flexor tendon.
We’re so proud of all of you!
Lauryn was recently awarded one of the inaugural McKay Orthopaedic Research Conference Grant to attend the virtual Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) conference. We’re so honored to have such an exceptional undergrad in our lab!
Zack Davis, former TORL undergrad and current graduate student, was awarded a very prestigious NIH Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP). We’re so proud of him! Due to social distancing, we had to celebrate remotely.
First photo: Waiting for him to join the Zoom Meeting
Second photo: Springing into action to congratulate him! (Zack is bottom right in this one)
Stephanie Cone, TORL alumnus and the first TORL graduate, was recently awarded the Stryker/ORS Women’s Research Fellowship. Per the website: The Stryker/ORS Women’s Research Fellowship promotes women in science by providing an opportunity for a female ORS member who is a recent PhD in science or engineering to conduct research in the field of orthopaedic technology. The Fellowship provides one year of supportfor eligible applicants who are within five years of obtaining PhD degrees and are full-time post-doctoral fellows conducting orthopaedic research with an experienced research advisor.
Congratulations!
Matt was recently recognized as one of the Biomedical Engineering Society’s (BMES) 2020 Rising Stars in the Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE) Special Interest Group. He was recently recognized at the annual conference in Puerto Rico.
More info: https://www.bmes.org/risingstars
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) has awarded Matt the prestigious YC Fung Young Investigator Award “for leadership in musculoskeletal bioengineering and translations mechanobiology to improve human health”. The award will formally be presented at the Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Biotransport conference in Colorado in June.
You can see the BME announcement here (https://www.bme.unc.edu/bme-assistant-professor-matt-fisher-receives-the-2020-asme-y-c-fung-early-career-award/)
More info about the award is here (https://www.asme.org/about-asme/honors-awards/achievement-awards/y-c-fung-young-investigator-award)
Congratulations to Stephanie Cone, who was selected by the UNC graduate school as a 2018 Horizon Award recipient for her thesis work. Check it out!
The Graduate Education Advancement Board Horizon Award recognizes graduate students whose research holds extremely high potential for making a significant contribution to the educational, economic, physical, social or cultural well-being of North Carolina citizens and beyond at some future time. More info about the award can be found here.
Congratulations to our department, including TORL, which won the National Biomechanics Day Student Competition! We were one of three entries selected based on high quality biomechanics content. The second annual National Biomechanics Day was held on April 6, 2017. See the announcement here!
Many congratulations are in order for Stephanie, who was one of 12 nominees selected for the University Award for Excellence, which is the highest honor a non-faculty member can receive! Despite stiff competition, the committee recognized her outstanding contributions to the community. Now she goes on to compete for the Governor’s Awards for Excellence. Winners will be announced late this summer.
Per the website: “The NC State University Awards for Excellence recognize the notable contributions that are above and beyond an employee’s normal job responsibilities. These meritorious achievements or accomplishments should be so singularly outstanding that special recognition is justified.”
See the official announcement here.
Congratulations to Stephanie for this extraordinary accomplishment!
https://www.bme.unc.edu/stephanie-teeter-wins-college-of-engineering-award-for-excellence/
Hope Piercy, a BME senior in the lab, won the BME Undergraduate Researcher of the Month for November. The citation reads, “Hope is receiving this award for her research in MRI-based modeling and prototype development in Dr. Fisher’s lab. Her research has previously been recognized with an Abram’s award and a poster award at the NCSU undergraduate research symposium. Hope was presented the award at the Lucas Scholars presentations. Congratulations Hope!