Awards
summit award® recipients
The Alberta Ingenuity Fund
Research Excellence Award
The McCaig Centre for Joint Injury and Arthritis Research and
the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute Knee Team
The award recognizes professionals in academia or industry
who have conducted innovative research in
engineering, geology or geophysics, and that research has been successfully applied
to improve our
economic and social well-being.
Arthritis is a complex and often crippling condition. Finding the causes and best treatment for the disease, and developing innovative techniques to repair debilitating joint injuries suffered by many Albertans are the goals of an exceptional community of clinicians, basic scientists and engineers brought together in the McCaig Centre of the University of Calgary and the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute. The Knee Team consists of Dr. Nigel G. Shrive, P.Eng. (Civil); Dr. Cyril B. Frank, Orthopaedic Surgeon; Dr. Janet L. Ronsky, P.Eng. (Mechanical); and Dr. David A. Hart, Molecular and Cell Biologist.
The multidisciplinary Knee Team combines the skills and knowledge of engineering with those of medical research to investigate the complexities of structure-function relationships as they relate to the knee. This joint is frequently injured, often leading to loss of function in adolescents and adults, and the development of chronic pain and loss of mobility and independence later in life. Novel developments from the Knee Team include using a robot, the ROTOPOD, which the researchers adapted to simulate what happens to tissues in a live body by recreating joint motions and forces. The results are providing new understanding on how the knee functions and adapts following injuries which contribute to disease development later in life. They have introduced the concept that a joint is a dynamic and adaptive organ throughout life.
Of particular note is the extensive collaboration and coordination of the research work within teams such as the Knee Team. The University of Calgary and the University of Alberta coordinate many areas of research so as to avoid duplication of effort and waste of limited resources. Recently, through the auspices of a $1.3 million grant from the Whitaker Foundation, a Provincial Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program was established between the two universities. The program at the University of Calgary is currently led by Dr. Shrive. This collaborative approach not only offers great potential to move research forward at a faster pace, but it also provides an excellent training environment for the next generation of researchers. Trainees in the laboratories of the Knee Team receive a multidisciplinary perspective of medically-relevant problems coupled with biological and engineering approaches to finding solutions to a problem which affects so many Albertans.