Key Centre Achievements

Funding success – The MSk MEC was successful in receiving a £1.3 million EPSRC Strategic Equipment grant for an Injury & Reconstruction Biomechanics Test Suite that will be housed in the BME hub at the White City Campus. The grant application was led by Dr Spyridon Masouros and other key MSk MEC investigators including Professor Anthony Bull and Dr Jonathan Jeffers. 

MSk MEC Seminar – Two keynote speakers presented at the final 2018 MSk MEC seminar. Dr Anne Silverman from the Colorado School of Mines spoke on ‘Low back biomechanics during activities of daily living in people with a Lower-Limb Amputation’ and Mr Andy Goldberg OBE from the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital discussed why ‘Surgeons fuse the subtalar joint rather than replace it.’ There were also other short talks from the research groups of Prof. Anthony Bull, Prof. Julian Jones and Dr Jonathan Jeffers. Read more here.

Awards - MSk MEC Co-Director Prof Molly Stevens was awarded the IOP Rosalind Franklin Medal and Prize for her contributions to ground-breaking and influential advances in the engineering of bioinspired materials for regenerative medicine and biosensing applications – and their translation into industrial development and medical deployment.

Funding success –  The MSk lab, one of the key research groups of the MSk MEC received a major donation from the Sackler Trust. The generous donation will support research for developing improved surgical interventions, better diagnostic tools, and greater understanding of human movement as well as the impact of pain on the functioning of the musculoskeletal system. In recognition of the gift, the MSk Lab will be renamed the Sackler Centre for Musculoskeletal Research.

MSk MEC Accelerator -  The Translation Project Manager - Dr Anne Roque interviewed Dr Susannah Clarke, an Imperial alumni, and co-founder and Director of Embody Orthopaedic Limited which launched the H1 resurfacing implant. Susannah who received an MBE in June 2018, shared her inspiring entrepreneurial journey in the interview which will be featured on the MSk MEC’s webpage shortly. 

External Visits - The MSk MEC Accelerator was featured in visits from the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Institute in Bangkok and the Chinese West Taihu Lake International Medical Industrial Park, which were hosted by Imperial’s Bioengineering Department.

BioMedEng18 Conference - Together with Imperial’s Bioengineering Department, the MSk MEC hosted the UK's largest gathering of Biomedical Engineers, Medical Engineers and Bioengineers. The conference was held at Imperial College London from 6-7th September 2018. Over 500 delegates from 100 institutions across the United Kingdom and beyond attended the conference. The two day event comprised of 4 plenary lectures, 7 keynote talks, 148 oral and rapid fire presentations and 261 poster presentations. In addition to the scientific presentations, there were also workshops on Biomedical Engineering Education and Careers in Bioengineering, and the Phenomenal Women in Innovation workshop. Read more here.

MSk MEC Accelerator - Prof Anthony Bull was invited to present the MSk MEC’s Accelerator program at the Translational Partnership Award (iTPA) networking event organised by the Wellcome Trust. The event was attended by 10 other iTPA partnerships across the UK and beyond.

MSk MEC Seminar – The keynote speaker Professor Daniel Rueckert from Imperial College London, spoke on 'Deep learning for extracting clinically useful information from medical images'. The seminar was open to all and had over 100 attendees. There were also other short talks from the research groups of Prof. Julian Jones, Dr Angela Kedgley, Dr Niamh Nowlan, Dr Andrew Phillips & Prof. Alison McGregor. Read more here.

MSk MEC Seminar - Professor Roger Enoka from the University of Colorado was the keynote speaker at the MSk MEC seminar on Electromyography which had about 100 attendees. In addition to the keynote, there were other short talks on Electromyography from the Angela Kedgley, Anthony Bull, Dario Farina, Etienne Burdet and Paul Strutton research groups. Read more here.

Funding success – The MSk MEC was successful in receiving a £1.6 million EPSRC Strategic Equipment grant for a Medical Device Prototype & Manufacturing Unit that will be housed in the BME hub at the White City Campus. The grant application was led by Dr Jonathan Jeffers and other MSk MEC key investigators including Professor Anthony Bull, Professor Justin Cobb and Professor Molly Stevens, with Renishaw plc as an industrial partner. 

MSk MEC Accelerator - The Imperial MSk MEC Accelerator programme which launched in March 2018, has a targeted approach of translating musculoskeletal research projects within the college ‘from bench to bedside’. Funded by the Wellcome Trust, the MSk MEC Accelerator has embedded project management which supports research to advance more rapidly into clinical use and commercial development. To date, 5 key musculoskeletal projects including a wearable project, biomaterials project, instrumentation project, diagnostic project and an implant project have been selected for the Accelerator programme. Working with Imperial Innovations, the selected projects have been reviewed by a MedTech panel and the feedback provided is guiding the Development Action Plan.

New Starter - The new MSk MEC Translation Project Manager – Dr Anne Roques started

New Starter - The new MSk MEC Centre Manager  – Dr Gifty Tetteh started