McKay Lab News & Awards
Last revised August 2012
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE ARTICLE: Dr. Mauck and Dr. Baker's paper on composite nanofibers for orthopaedic biomaterials as been featured in the Penn Medicine News and Publications website. The full results of their study can be found on The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences website.
STEMMLER 4 RENOVATIONS: We are excited to announce that our renovations are now complete! Click here to view the amazing transition!
3RD IN THE NATION: The McKay Lab has recently risen from 5th to 3rd in NIH Rankings for Orthopaedic Surgery Departments in the United States!
PCMD RENEWAL: The P30 renewal grant that supports our Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders received an excellent score and the grant is now official for 5 more years!! Click here to see the press release.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER STORY: The research of Rob Mauck and Jason Burdick was recently highlighted in an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Click here to view the story online.
NIH AWARDS: Lou Soslowsky was recently ranked by the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research as the top NIH-funded orthopaedics researcher in the country. Click here to view the rankings for PIs with primary appointments in orthopedics. Congratulations, Lou!
PENN CURRENT ARTICLE: An April 2011 article in Penn Current featured collaborations between Rob Mauck and Jason Burdick. Click here to view the article.
2010
KAPPA DELTA AWARD: Lou Soslowsky received the 2010 Ann Doner Vaughan Kappa Delta Award from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. This award is considered the Nobel Prize of Orthopaedic Surgery Research and represents a great honor for Lou and the lab. Congratulations to Lou on this well-deserved award!!! Click here to view press release.
2009
INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE: Fred Kaplan was elected to the Institute of Medicine. Click here to view press release.
SCIENCE MAGAZINE ARTICLE: A July 2009 article in the Science Careers section of Science, "Basic Scientists in the Clinic," featured the collaborative translational interactions of Eileen Shore and Fred Kaplan. Click here to view the article from Science Magazine.
AIMM BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Eileen Shore was elected the President of Advances in Mineral Metabolism (AIMM) for a two-year term (2010 and 2011 annual meetings).
NIH STUDY SECTION: Eileen Shore is a member of the NIAMS Skeletal Biology Disease and Development (SBDD) Study Section for a 4-year term (2007-2011).
ASBMR 31st ANNUAL MEETING: Eileen Shore has been invited to present a Symposium Lecture “Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP) – More Than a Rare Disease” at the 2009 American Society of Bone and Mineral Research meeting in Denver, CO in September.
2009 Y.C. FUNG YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD: Rob Mauck will receive the 2009 Y.C. Fung Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Congratulations to Rob on this very prestigious award!
NEW ENDOWED CHAIR: Lou Soslowsky has been named the Fairhill Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Penn. This is a tremendous honor for Lou - congratulations!! Click here to view the story from the Penn Almanac.
2008
ISSLS AWARD WINNER: Congratulations to our own Nandan Nerurkar, Rob Mauck, and Dawn Elliott. Their paper, "Integrating Theoretical and Experimental Methods for Functional Tissue Engineering of the Annulus Fibrosus," has won the prestigious 2008 International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS) prize for lumbar spine research in the Bioengineering category. The paper will be published in Spine, presented at a special session at the ISSLS meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, and includes an $11,000 award sponsored by DePuy Spine. Congrats once again!!!
2007
WHARTON BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION: Congratulations to Neil Malhotra, a neurosurgery resident working in the McKay Lab. Neil, along with a team of Wharton School students received $20,000 to start a business venture, which could help in treating patients with degenerative disc disease. Click here to view the story from CNNMoney.com.
NSF GRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS: Congratulations to Brendon Baker and Isaac Erickson, bioengineering graduate students in the McKay Labs. Brendon and Isaac have both been awarded three-year National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships to begin in the Fall of 2007. This fellowship program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in relevant science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER STORY: Click here to view the story on tendon healing appearing in the February 19, 2007 Health & Science section of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The printed version is also available by clicking here.
SWE POSTER PRESENTATION COMPETITION: Nelly Andarawis earned Honorable Mention in the Women in Engineering Poster Presentation Competition held on January 17, 2007. Congratulations to Nelly and her co-authors!
2006
ORS ABSTRACTS ACCEPTED: The bioengineering side of the McKay Lab had 24 out of 25 submitted abstracts accepted to the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society this year (to be held February 2007 in San Diego). Over the past several years, we have had 98 out of 100 accepted - congratulations!
GAANN GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP: Congratulations to Brendon Baker, a second-year bioengineering graduate student in McKay. Brendon has been awarded a Graduate Assistantship in an Area of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship for the 2006-2007 academic year.
ORS BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Dawn Elliott joined the Orthopaedic Research Society Board of Directors as Technology Chair in 2006.
ASME SUMMER BIOENGINEERING CONFERENCE AWARDS: The McKay Lab was well-represented at the 2006 ASME Summer Bioengineering Conference held June 21-25, 2006. An Nguyen won 1st place in the BS Level Poster Competition, Cathy Peltz won 1st place in MS Level Poster Competition, Stephanie Perry won 3rd place in PhD Level Podium Competition, and Heather Guerin received Honorable Mention in the PhD Level Poster Competition. Dawn Elliott was the Local Arrangements Chair for the meeting and will be Program Chair in 2009. In addition, Lou Soslowsky received the Past Chair Award after completing his term as Chair of the ASME Bioengineering Division. Congratulations, everyone!
RESIDENT RESEARCH COMPETITIONS: Congratulations to McKay and Penn Orthopaedic Residents Joshua Auerbach and Neil Sheth for receiving 1st and 3rd place, respectively, for their research, which was presented at the OREF/NY Metropolitan Area Resident Research Competition in May 2006. Additionally, Neil Sheth received 2nd prize for his presentation on suture fixation and biologic integration of nanofibrous scaffolds to meniscus, given at the Resident Research Competition of the Philadelphia Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine in the Spring of 2006.
BIOENGINEERING SENIOR DESIGN TEAM: The Bioengineering Senior Design team of students Evelyn Chou, Julia Glaser, and Sherri Wykosky won the BE Design Competition on April 10, 2006. This team, led by Dawn Elliott, PhD, and Mary Ann Keenan, MD, designed and fabricated a flexible hand orthosis to provide passive opening of the thumb and fingers of patients following stroke or brain injury. They will now compete in the Engineering School-wide Design competition later this month.
PENN CENTER FOR MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS: The School of Medicine was awarded a $3.2 million NIH grant to create the Penn Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders. The McKay Lab will serve as one of three cores, allowing for increased collaboration among Penn musculoskeletal researchers. There are only 4 other such Centers in the country. Congratulations to Director Lou Soslowsky and the rest of the faculty who worked on this grant!
NSF GRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP: Congratulations to Alice Huang, a first-year bioengineering graduate student in McKay. Alice has been awarded a three-year National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to begin in the Fall of 2006. This fellowship program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in relevant science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines who are pursuing research-based master's and doctoral degrees. LeAnn Dourte received Honorable Mention.
ORAL PRESENTATION AWARD: The paper "Noninvasive determination of nucleus pulposus proteoglycan content using T1rho MRI" co-authored by Wade Johannessen, Josh Auerbach, Andy Wheaton, Alykhan Kurji, Ari Borthakur, Ravi Reddy, and Dawn Elliott won the Hansjoerg Wyss Foundation Oral Presentation Award for best presentation at the ECM/SRN Motion Segment: From Basic Science to Clinical Application conference in Davos, Switzerland on July 4, 2005.
ORS ABSTRACTS ACCEPTED: The bioengineering side of the McKay Lab had all 17 of 17 submitted abstracts accepted to the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society this year (to be held March 2006 in Chicago). This is four years in a row that the lab has had all of its abstracts accepted!
TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVES/LEADERSHIP TRAINING CONFERENCE: Lou Soslowsky was invited to participate in the Technology Executives/Leadership Training Conference sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This Conference was held in March 2005 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
NIH STUDY SECTION: Dawn Elliott has begun a 3-year appointment to the NIH musculoskeletal tissue engineering study section, beginning in 2005 and ending in 2008.
ORS ABSTRACTS ACCEPTED: The bioengineering side of the McKay Lab had all 12 of 12 submitted abstracts accepted to the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society this year (to be held February 2005 in Washington, DC). This is three years in a row that the lab has had all of its abstracts accepted!
ACADEMIC LEADERSHIP PROGRAM: Lou Soslowsky was invited to participate in an Academic Leadership Program sponsored by the Whitaker Foundation. This intensive program was focused on leadership and leadership training in the broad field of biomedical engineering and was held in Leesburg, Virginia in April 2004.
JOR EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: Lou Soslowsky joined the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Orthopaedic Research, starting in 2004 and ending in 2007.
2003 YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD: Dawn Elliott is the recipient of the 2003 Young Investigator Award from the International Study of the Lumbar Spine Society based on her paper "Validation of the mouse and rat disc as mechanical models of the human lumbar disc" which will be published in Spine (the premiere spine journal) early in 2004. J Sarver is a co-author on that paper. Congratulations on this prestigious and well deserved award!
LEADERSHIP OF THE BIOENGINEERING DIVISION OF ASME: Lou Soslowsky has been selected as the Secretary Elect of the Bioengineering Division of ASME. Lou will be the Secretary of the Division the following year and Chair the year after. Congratulations Lou!
ORS ABSTRACTS ACCEPTED: The bioengineering side of our McKay Orthopaedic Research Lab had all 15 of 15 submitted abstracts accepted (!) to the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society this year (to be held March 2004 in San Francisco). Since the national acceptance average is only about 60%, we should all be very proud of this accomplishment. This is two years in a row that the lab has had all of its abstracts accepted!
ASME FELLOW: Congratulations to Lou Soslowsky who has been elected Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Lou will receive this award at the annual meeting in Washington D.C. in November 2003.
ASBMR YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD: Congratulations to David Glaser who is the recipient of an American Society of Bone and Mineral Research Young Investigator Award to be given at the 2003 Annual Meeting. Congratulations David on this prestigious award!
BEST UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT POSTER AWARD: Shanee Allen, a Drexel University bioengineering student working in Dr. Elliott's laboratory, won the award for best undergraduate student poster presentation at the 29th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference March 22 and 23, 2003. Her paper, entitled "Age-related differences in mechanical properties of mouse lumbar motion segments" was also co-authored by Dr. Sarver, Nelly Andarawis, and Dr. Elliott.
JOHN J. FAHEY, M.D., MEMORIAL, NORTH AMERICAN TRAVELING FELLOWSHIP: Congratulations to David Glaser who has been awarded this prestigious Traveling Fellowship Award. This Fellowship is one of the most prominent traveling fellowships in orthopaedics and serves to identify the future leaders of the field. Since its origination, 150 fellows have participated in the program. Many of these fellows have gone on to leadership positions in our field. Congratulations Dave!
VICE CHAIR FOR RESEARCH: In recognition of accomplishments and in raising the profile of orthopaedic research at the University of Pennsylvania, Lou Soslowsky has been appointed Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.
NEW INVESTIGATOR RECOGNITION AWARD: Congratulations to David Glaser who is the recipient of a New Investigator Recognition Award of the Orthopaedic Research Society given at the 2003 Annual Meeting for his paper titled "The Origin of Cells within a Healing Tendon". Congratulations!
2003 SUMMER BIOENGINEERING CONFERENCE: Lou Soslowsky chaired international bioengineering conference held June 25-29, 2003 in Key Biscayne, Florida. This conference was attended by over 750 people and was a resounding success.
ORS ABSTRACTS ACCEPTED: The bioengineering side of our McKay Orthopaedic Research Lab had all 14 of 14 submitted abstracts accepted(!) to the annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society this year (to be held February 2003 in New Orleans). Since the national acceptance average is only about 60%, we should all be very proud of this accomplishment!