Author: Rosa Armitage

Today Ms Maddie Mcintyre (Centre Manager) and Prof, Yuantong Gu (Centre Director) had the pleasure to visit Australian Biotechnologies Head Office in Sydney to learn more about their impressed allograft processing facility and discuss some exciting research projects we have in the works.

As described on their website, Australian Biotechnologies Pty Ltd. was founded in 2000 and is located in Sydney, Australia. As a specialist in allograft tissue processing, Australian Biotechnologies delivers optimal solutions for all clinical biologic and allograft requirements, to supply allografts for a wide range of patient needs and surgical procedures.

Supplying allograft solutions for orthopaedic, spinal, dental and oral-maxillofacial surgeries both nationally and internationally, Australian Biotechnologies’ world-class manufacturing facilities and proprietary processing technology have become renowned as the gold standard of allograft production.

Australian Biotechnologies are specifically known for their applications in bone void and structural applications in orthopaedic, spinal, dental, and oral-maxillofacial surgeries , such as for ACL replacements, glenoid reconstructions for femoral head structural defects, and to fill voids in the trabecular/cortisol bone during shoulder surgeries. 

At the Centre for Joint Biomechanics, Australian Biotechnologies is a valued industry partner assisting us with the aims of Program 3, where we are developing new soft tissue replacement techniques and engineered scaffolds for rotator cuff repair. ​

Thank you for hosting us Patrick May, the director of engineering & Jay Li, the Product Innovation and Engineering Manager. We cannot wait to develop further research projects with your team.

On August 17th 2022 our new PhD student Amy Ma visited QUT’s campus to meet the extended Centre team and get introduced to the broader research programs.

Amy will conduct her PhD within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland with Prof Paul Hodges. Her research is focused on using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Electromyography data, to explore the central mechanisms of neuromuscular control in patients with healthy and pathological shoulders.

The shoulder complex is highly mobile which is capable of movements in multiple directions and planes. While it being highly functional, the shoulder complex relies on sophisticated coordination between multiple shoulder muscles for control and stability. It has been proposed that aberrant muscle coordination may be one of the mechanisms for injury or sustained dysfunction. Central Nervous System (CNS) including the corresponding brain areas and neural pathways responsible for muscle contraction is of crucial importance.

However there is yet a consensus on how muscle control is altered in people with shoulder pain or pathologies. This is partly due to a limited understanding on the underlying mechanism involving the CNS in both healthy and symptomatic population. She hypothesises that 1) there is a pattern of muscle coordination and CNS features that is task specific in the healthy population, and 2) this pattern is altered/absent in people with shoulder pain or pathology.

The project will help both researchers and clinicians understand how and why neuromuscular control is impaired after onset of pathology or pain, which may shed light on shoulder rehabilitation and potentially diagnosis.

A big welcome from our Program 4 team Prof Graham Kerr & Dr Wolbert van den Hoorn and the whole Centre.

During the visit Prof. Milford showcased the capabilities of robots to assist in different manoeuvres which are translatable to the clinical and surgical context. Specifically, highlights from our work in Program 2.

Program 2 is focused on the use of robots and emerging ultrasound technologies for studying the bone and joint response to complex three-dimensional and time-varying loads experienced during physical activity. These technologies will be used for developing robot-assisted procedures for improving precision in current shoulder arthroplasty procedures and will enable in-vitro testing of orthopaedic devices for the assessment of current and novel orthopaedic devices. This will assist surgical methods for optimal joint function and precision tracking in human motion experiments for rehabilitation and the comprehensive assessment of clinical intervention.

On hand to demonstrate our  robotic technologies was PhD student Mr Morgan Windsor. Surgical robots are an emerging technology used for shoulder arthroplasty as this procedure is the fastest growing joint replacement procedure in the world with growth expected to continue.  

A major cause revision surgery is glenoid component failure such as loosening and wear with malpositioning being recognised as a key factor in component failure.  Surgical planning systems are already a mature technology available to assist surgeons determine optimum implant positioning but tools to assist translating these plans into precise and accurate execution are limited and have low acceptance rates among surgeons. The use of surgical robotics has been shown to improve the precision and accuracy of implant positioning in other orthopaedic procedures such as knee arthroplasty but none are available for the shoulder. 

Morgan’s research focuses on improving the existing “gold standard” in orthopaedic surgical robots, which use optical tracking markers attached to bone during the surgery. The issue with these are that these markers are time consuming to attach and register, require additional or larger incisions and limit how the surgical team can move in the operating room as they require line of sight with a base station while in use.  

Both Mr. Windsor and Prof. Milford were quick to highlight advancements the Centre for Joint Biomechanics is making on tracking guidewire attachment for shoulder implants.

Along with the rest of the Program 2 team (Adj. Prof. Ashish Gupta, Prof. Peter Pivonka, and Dr. Jing Peng we wish to thank the QUT Centre for Robotics’ Centre Manager Ms Ilana Bolingford, Mr Paul Turner the Director of Government Relations and Protocol at QUT, and Mr David Russo the Government Relations Manager at QUT for co-ordinating the visit.

From the 1^st to 4^th of August, members of the ITTC for Joint Biomechanics attended the combined ANZBMS (Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society) – MEPSA (Molecular and Experimental Pathology Society of Australasia) -ANZORS (Australian & New Zealand Orthopaedic Society) conference.

Held at the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre, Broadbeach, our students and postdocs presented several scientific talks on their emerging research on joint biomechanics and modelling:

👉 Wed 3rd – Dr Dermot O’Rourke – Geometry and bone mineral density determinants of femoral neck strength changes following exercise

👉 Thurs 4th – Prof Peter Pivonka – Assessment of strategies for safe drug discontinuation and transition of denosumab treatment in PMO – insights from a mechanistic PK/PD model of bone turnover

👉 Thurs 4th – Xiaolong fan – Time-elapsed micro-CT imaging of humeral implant failure in reverser shoulder replacement

Our students and post-docs also had the chance to join a technical workshop with the ARC Centre for Implant Technologies (CMIT) on the Friday afternoon in conjunction with one of our key industry partners Materialise. We thank you David Lloyd, David John Saxby, Peter Vee Sin Lee, Meg Belmonte and ARC Training Centre for Medical Implant Technologies for inviting us to take part.

On July 20, 2022 Create magazine, one of Engineers Australia’s media publications featured an article on the center’s work from Program 2: Robot assisted testing and surgery.

Program 2 uses robotic and ultrasound technologies for studying bone and joint response due to complex loads experienced during everyday activity and for precision tracking in both human motion experiments and clinical interventions.  

The article highlighted how surgical robots designed by our engineers can improve patient outcomes and reduce the need for repeat surgery.

As described in the article by Ms Sophie Deutch, “In every surgery, no matter how skilled or capable a surgeon is, there’s always some risk of human variability. As internal surgery requires the manipulation of tools through incisions as small as 10 mm, this can sometimes pose a challenge for surgeons.”

One of our key clinical partners Adj. Prof. Ashish Gupta who is driving the research and development into the use of surgical robots to perform guidewire placement for shoulder arthroscopy surgeries believes that the future of surgical practice will be defined by the engineering developments that the centre is focusing on now as  “Orthopaedics is inherently tied to engineering. Nothing we do in orthopaedics is possible without engineering.”

Our robots team in Program 2 features several academics and PhD students from the Queensland University of technology, A/Prof. Saulo Martelli, Dr Jing Peng, Mr. Arun Jolly, Mr. Morgan Windsor, and Mr. Ahmed Sewify. Our expert team also features Prof. Michael Milford as one of leading CIs, Prof. Peter Pivonka from program 1, and Dr. ken Cutbush our other key clinical partner who were featured in the article.

As Michael states: “If surgeons have a robot assisting them then there is also the potential for them to be relieved of some of the cognitive load of performing a task. It would still be a collaborative process but it wouldn’t just be on the surgeon.”

Although many researchers at the centre don’t believe that AI will ever completely replace surgeons, the use of robotics and AI technology will greatly increase the safety and accuracy of several components of surgical procedures, potentially reducing surgical times and/or errors, and thus improving patient outcomes overall.

With this vision, the centre will continue with the mission of transforming and personalising patient care in the orthopaedics industry.

From the 10th to 14th July 2022, our team attended the 9th World Congress of Biomechanics in Taipei, Taiwan. From the first World Congress of Biomechanics held at La Jolla, California, the USA in 1990 the World Congress of Biomechanics has become the most prestigious forum for the exchange of new ideas, technologies, and novel findings in a broad spectrum of scales ranging from the molecular, cellular, tissue, and organ levels to the system-wide, as well as in basic research and clinical applications.

Leading our representation at the conference was Program 3 lead Prof Justin Cooper-White who delivered a plenary talk on ‘Mechano-intervention: Elucidating drives of stem cell date for enhanced and targeted tissue rejuvenation.’ Program 3 focuses on developing optimised Tissue-Engineered Scaffolds. This research program utilises multiscale computational models and simulation outputs along with detailed characterisation and mapping of shoulder joint biomechanics to inform the design, development, optimisation, and validation of engineered scaffolds for rotator cuff repair.

📣 Prof Lynne Bilston, Prof Syn Schmitt, Prof Paul Hodges also provided lectures with Dr Bart Bolsterlee, Prof Peter Pivonka, and Prof Lynne Bilston further acting as session moderators.

⭐ Congratulations to the Joint Biomechanics team with Mr Marco Branni, Miss Yilan (Olivia) Zhang, Ms Marine Launay, Dr Brandon Ziegenfuss, Adj. Prof. Ashish Gupta, Mr Corey Miller, Dr Bart Bolsterlee, Prof Peter Pivonka, and A/Prof Saulo Martelli in attendance to promote their research.

Last week our team had the opportunity to present their work at the 27th congress of the European Society for Biomechanics Congress #ESB2022, held between 27-29 June in Porto, Portugal.

Dr Dermot O’Rourke presented his work entitled ‘ Characterising the relationship between the knee bone geometry and passive kinematics’ and was fortunate to win an esteemed travel award for his outstanding presentation.

Affiliate PhD student and his Principal Supervisor, Centre Deputy Director, Prof. Peter Pivonka presented their work on ‘A Multiscale, mechanobiological model of cortical bone adaptation due to pth and mechanical loading,’ followed by another exemplary presentation from our program 2 lead Prof. Saulo Martelli on ‘ ‘The effect of microstructural anisotropy on load bearing capacity of the entire human femur.’

One of the highlights of the event was a table discussion hosted by our Centre’s Industry Partner Materialise on Tech Transfer (TT) in Biomechanics, a fundamental aspect of our centre as we strive to drive transformation in the orthopaedic industry through translational research. The talk provided very practical advice on the different stages of conveying results stemming from scientific and technological research to the marketplace and to wider society, along with associated skills and procedures,

After a few busy days of presentations, the team relaxed to enjoy the conference dinner and took up some of the greater sights from the Porto & the Douro Valley region.

We thank the conference organisers for the opportunity to showcase our research with our European counterparts.

On Thursday 16 June, the ARC Training Centre for Joint Biomechanics had the chance to take part in QUT (Queensland University of Technology) ‘Power of Engineering’ program.

The program is designed by QUT (Queensland University of Technology) for Year 7, 8 & 9 students to assist with their key decision-making to study STEM senior subjects. As part of the celebration of the International Women in Engineering Day 2022, QUT also offered industry experiences and a range of talks from current Engineering students, such as our PhD students enrolled at the centre to encourage discussion and networking with engineering staff. We were fortunate to host one session of the immersive daily program with 22 Year 9 students from Calamvale Community College visiting the Centre.

As part of their experience, they gained insight into the research happening at the centre; heard personal stories of where an engineering degree has taken some of our students, chief investigators, and industry colleagues; and saw some of the great lab spaces where our research takes place QUT Centre for Robotics.

On Thursday the 23rd of June, the official  International Women in Engineering Day,  we hosted a secondary session with more students visiting with talks from our very own centre manager Ms Maddie McIntyre and PhD students and affiliate researchers Dr Jing Peng, Miss Natali Uribe, and Ms Marine Launay who each spoke on their engineering journey and career story to date. It was wonderful to see our centre staff and researchers raise the profile of women in engineering and focus attention on the amazing career opportunities available to girls in this exciting industry.

We at the centre would like to thank all who volunteered their time to meet with the students and help inspire different conversations about engineering, career planning, and how you can make a difference through engineering and research.

On the 8th of June 2022, the inaugural IAB meeting was conducted  in person to discuss both the Centre progress to date and future directions.

The IAB is an independent advisory group established to provide objective expert advice and recommendations to the EC with regards to the Centre’s performance, strategic direction, research priorities and partnerships. Membership comprises of invited academic, clinical and industry experts in the field of orthopaedics, biomedical engineering, and medical technologies. Board Members are invited and appointed by the EC and Centre Director and are selected based on their experience within a key stakeholder group of the Centre and for their demonstrated ability to provide sound guidance on the research and general activities of the Centre.

The role of the Advisory Board is to review the Centre’s performance and make recommendations that assist with the achievement of the Centre’s strategic goals and in setting future strategic direction, including beyond the lifetime of the Centre. The Board is advised by the Centre Director and EC on strategy and progress. 

The output of the Board meeting included recommendations and key questions across several aspects of the Centre including: 

*Training & Employability of Centre Members 

*Centre Culture & Cohesiveness 

*Diversity of Stakeholder Engagement & Interactions 

*Performance Measures, and 

*Future Outlook

The output also included an overview of identified strengths, weaknesses, key opportunities, and potential threats of the Centre for the EC to review and consider. In conjunction with the outputs of the EC strategic planning day (April 2022), the IAB recommendations and summary have informed the creation of a Centre-funded Seed Grant program which is being piloted in 2022-2023. This strategically-funded initiative aims to directly foster collaboration between the early-career team members (HDRs and post-docs) and our industry partners to identify clinically-relevant research gaps and apply for funding to lead a 12 month multidisciplinary project. Training and development activities are incorporated into the application process to guide early-career team members through the grant application and project management processes.  

Overall at the centre, we are grateful to have a diverse range of clinical, academic, industry, and engagement experts, who will help steer our Centre to higher performance, plan for our next stages and network with our researchers with Prof. Karen Reynalds, Prof David Sonnabend, Dr Dimity Dornan AO, and Mr Peter Cooke. We know that the future direction of the centre is in safe hands with our leading experts on board.

For further information on their backgrounds, please refer to our website here.