ENGAGE Christmas Lecture - Building Bones – Professor Richard OC Oreffo -Tuesday 15th December 2015
Bridging the Gap: Skeletal Stem Cell Based Strategies for Bone Repair; Challenges and Opportunities
The inaugural Science Park Christmas Lecture was presented by Professor Richard Oreffo. This new tradition will become an annual ENGAGE event and aims to provide a unique insight into cutting edge science and technologies that affect us all. The lecture was designed to challenge, inspire and inform with a chance for audience members to ask questions following the presentation.
The Science Park wrote:
“ Science Park holds inaugural Christmas Lecture Wednesday 23rd December 2015 Last week the University of Southampton Science Park hosted its inaugural Christmas Lecture, an initiative aimed at drawing the academic and business worlds together to consider the impact of science and technology on society. The guest speaker was the University of Southampton’s Professor of Musculoskeletal Science, Richard Oreffo, who is an authority on the application of bone stem cells and regenerative medicine strategies to the repair of damaged skeletal tissue. His lecture, which was entitled ‘Building Bones’, covered the challenges and opportunities for skeletal stem cell based strategies for bone repair. Richard began by explaining that his motivation for his work was triggered by an incident in 2000 when his daughter fell off a garden wall. He has since been working with collaborative teams at the University of Southampton to make a difference to patients with devastating bone conditions. He gave the audience a fascinating insight into the world of stem cells, growth agents and scaffold structures and how they can come together to facilitate the regenerative growth of a patient’s bone. He cited an example of how a hip joint was designed using a patient’s CT scan, 3D printed in titanium, implanted in the patient and grafted in position using bone stem cells. The result has, to date, resulted in a significant improvement in the patient’s quality of life. The lecture was well-received by the enthusiastic audience. Peter Birkett, CEO of Southampton Science Park, commented, “This was an outstanding start to what we hope will become a regular festive event at the Science Park. Richard’s authoritative scientific knowledge and innovative flair exemplifies exactly what we strive to achieve; taking revolutionary science out of the lab to solve real-world problems. I look forward to following developments in Richard’s work in the future.” - See more at: Science Park.