Southern Hospitality, Globally Impactful Research
17th February: Arrival in Durham, North Carolina
The fellows landed in Durham, North Carolina late on the Monday evening and headed to a charming AirBnB in the historic West End neighbourhood of the city.
18th February: Meeting Researchers at Duke
Tim, Ryan, Harriet and Mo were up and out early for a run around the Duke campus and the Sarah P Duke ornamental gardens. The beautiful rural setting was quite the change from the hustle and bustle of Chicago.
Following a short walk through the historic tobacco district of Durham, the fellows were greeted at the Carmichael building, itself situated in old tobacco warehouses, by Dr Virginia Kraus, Dr Gurpreet Baht and their group members. Over a breakfast of bagels and coffee, the fellows and the hosts discussed the research funding landscape in the US which is facing considerable uncertainty following announcements from the new administration. Discussions moved on to the more positive topic of ongoing research projects within the groups. Of particular interest, assistant professor Dr Xin Zhang spoke on her work isolating and characterising extracellular vesicles from the plasma of osteoarthritis (OA) patients. One of their most interesting findings is that the majority of TNF-a is found within EVs, is predictive of radiographic knee OA progression, and possibly explains why TNF-a inhibitors have been ineffectual in treating OA.
Aside from the fantastic research, or likely an explanation for it, what really stood out to the fellows was the culture of support and collaboration within the group. This certainly wasn’t accidental, Virginia shared her ethos via a quote from famous Duke and USA basketball coach, Coach K, ‘Only put good people on your bus, and only get on a bus driven by a good person’. This spirit ran through all of the research groups the fellows met, including that of Dr Matthew Hilton, who hosted lunch at the impressive students union. Following a lunchtime discussion of patient involvement in research, Dr Hilton shared an overview of the fascinating work of his group, which includes study of signalling cascades that guide cell fate in endochondral bone development, and the study of fibro/adipogenic progenitors found in muscle tissue. The final visit of the day was to the Human Performance lab to meet Dr Todd Cade and Dr Tim Lindsay (which our very own Dr Tim Lindsay was very excited about!).
The first day concluded with a beautiful dinner at a local restaurant, kindly hosted by Drs Kraus and Baht.
19th February: Presenting at Ortho Grand Rounds
Wednesday saw a very early start for the fellows, to take advantage of a fantastic opportunity to present at the Duke Orthopaedic Surgery Grand Rounds. Talks were well received and generated lots of discussion among the gathered residents and attendings. Following grand rounds, the fellows had the opportunity to sit down with Dr Benjamin Alman and discuss the structure of the medical school and the fascinating, ‘Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis’ (NITRO) trial. Finally, the fellows met with Dr Lou Defrate to discuss his biomechanics research which utilises advanced radiographic and MRI techniques to study the deformation of cartilage upon loading.
The fellows flew out of Durham earlier than planned to avoid an incoming (and very unusual for the region) snowstorm. Pictures of significant snowfall, sent by Professor Kraus the next day, proved this decision to be shrewd!
British Orthopaedic Research Society 