ORS Spine Section 2016 Poster and Podium award winners with ORS Spine Section leadership.

The ORS Spine Section held its first section meeting on Friday, March 4 as part of the ORS 2016 Annual Meeting programming at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Florida.

The theme for the 2016 meeting was Spine Research for Functional Translation with scientific symposia on animal models and imaging. Invited speakers included spine researchers and clinicians representing academics, government, and industry.

The ORS Spine Section meeting aimed to disseminate cutting edge information on focus topics of interest, to develop & strengthen collaborative research networks, to support young investigators, and to engage clinicians & industry experts.  Dr. James Iatridis (shown sixth from left) served as the Chair of the newly created ORS Spine section for 2015 and 2016.  Svenja Illien-Junger, PhD (shown third from left) received a Podium Award at for her presentation at this year’s meeting.  In all, Dr. Iatridis’ Spine Bioengineer Lab had nine podium presentations at the ORS.

In addition, Mount Sinai alums Dr. Devina Purmessur and Dr. Nelly Andarawis-Puri organized two popular New Investigator mentoring sessions: I) Successfully competing for a faculty position and II) How to lead and motivate a successful team.  As one of the leaders of Orthopaedic Research, Dr. James Iatridis was invited to give a lecture on “Choosing the right people” for the second session.

The tendon research program was well represented at the ORS this year with three podium presentations given by Dr. Alice Huang, Kristen Howell, and David Shiovitz.  Dr. Huang also served as a moderator for the New Investigator mentoring sessions I and II, as well as Tendon and Ligament: Cell Biology and Development.