Dr. Layne Freeman Organizes Biomedical Research Awareness Day and Dr. Sarah Gullbrand Speaks
April 16, 2026
Our veterinary surgical resident Dr. Layne Freeman organized this year's Biomedical Research Awareness Day at Penn with her fellow residents! The annual event highlights investigators across all schools at Penn whose research involves the use of animals. Specifically, BRAD is designed to highlight laboratories who best use the 3Rs approach when conducting their studies. This includes Replacement of animals with other models when appropriate, Reduction in the number of animals necessary to complete a study whenever possible, and Refinement of procedures to increase a study's impact while improving quality of life for our animals. Our very own Dr. Sarah Gullbrand presented our work using rabbits to understand why some people with low back pain benefit from physical therapy while others don't, focusing on the 3R components of these studies. Much of our work is beginning to show that providing our rabbits with more enrichment in the form structured exercise and unstructured play time may lead to both healthier spines and happier rabbits.
Gullbrand Lab Presents at ORS 2026
March 31, 2026
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Congratulations to all members of the Gullbrand Lab and our collaborators on their presentations at the Orthopaedic Research Society's 2026 Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina! During the spine section meeting, Master's student Brianna Orozco and PhD candidate Emily Sharp reflected on their research mentorships and travels enabled by the ORS Spine Section Travel Award and the Dr. Peter Roughley Award, respectively. PhD students Janai Augustin and Matthew Fainor both gave their very first talks at ORS, and we are very proud of the excellent work they do! To top it off, Matthew Fainor won an ORS Spine Section award for his research presented during the poster sessions. You can find the details about all our projects on Dr. Gullbrand's LinkedIn page and on the ORS website. A big thanks to everyone who contributes to the ORS community, making it a supportive, inspiring, collaborative place to ground our work. See everyone soon!
Congratulations to Janai Augustin and Dr. Kevin Burt on Cells Publication
February 03, 2026
Congratulations to co-first authors Janai Augustin and Dr. Kevin Burt as well as their coauthors for the new paper "Neuroimmune Activation in a Goat Model of Intervertebral Disc Degeneration" published today in a special issue of the journal Cells: Novel Insights into Mechanism and Treatment of Degenerative Disc Disease.
Alex Baranyai's Summer Research Highlighted in CURF Newsletter
December 12, 2025
Undergraduate student researcher Alex Baranyai shared a bit of her experience working in the Gullbrand Lab with the Penn Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships in their latest newsletter. Alex is supported by a University Scholars research training grant. Read on to learn more about her first summer and fall in the lab! She is truly our biggest superstar.
Gullbrand Lab Attends PSRS 2025 and Matthew Fainor Wins 2nd Best Podium Presentation
November 07, 2025
The Gullbrand Lab journeyed to the University of Delaware today to present at the 2025 Philadelphia Spine Research Symposium. Dr. Harvey Smith kicked off the last session of the day "Bench to Bedside - Translational Spine Research" with his keynote detailing the progress we've made developing the eDAPS total intervertebral disc replacement and TARPS annular patch therapies. PhD student Matthew Fainor presented his research project "IL-1 Does Not Exacerbate Cell Death in a Large-Scale Tissue-Engineered Intervertebral Disc" for which he won second best podium presentation. Janai Augustin and Brianna Orozco also presented their research during the poster session. A big thank you to Dr. Gullbrand for co-organizing this year's event alongside our longtime collaborator Dr. Tom Schaer!