Sponsoring Outstanding Women Scientists at the Prestigious Gordon Conference

Sponsoring Outstanding Women Scientists at the Prestigious Gordon Conference

27 Mar 2019

An ANRF travel grant provided three young female researchers the opportunity to attend and speak at the prestigious Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on March 17-20, 2019. This ANRF support came in the form of registration fees and contribution to travel costs to the Cartilage Biology and Pathology Gordon Research Conference. This year’s conference was entitled “Cartilage Development and Regeneration and Their Implications in Disease Therapies” and was held in Galveston, Texas. Travel awards were selected following a competitive review by conference organizers. Chairs of this year’s conference were Drs. Yingzi Yang (Harvard, USA) and John F. Bateman (MCRI, AUSTRALIA), assisted by vice chairs Farshid Guilak (WashU, USA) and Frank Zaucke (OUF, GERMANY)

In the field of cartilage research, this conference is the platform where cutting edge research and advancements are reported at the highest level. This ninth edition of the GRC on Cartilage Biology and Pathology had two declared objectives:

• First, continue to make this conference the premier forum for excellence in cartilage research.
• Second, promote scientific exchange between trainees and seasoned cartilage researchers by complementing the GRC with the second Gordon Research Seminar (GRS).

For the full agenda and conference news please follow this link.  https://www.grc.org/cartilage-biology-and-pathology-conference/2019/

Awardees supported by the ANRF grant were:

Kim Cooper
Assistant professor, University of California, San Diego, USA
“Control of Differential Growth Rates in Development and Evolution to Establish Skeletal Proportion”

Kate Poole
Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, Australia
“Mechanical Activation and Modulation of TRPV4 and PIEZO1 at the Cell-Substrate Interface”

Alexandra Naba
Assistant professor, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
“Bioinformatic and Proteomic Approaches to Characterize the Extra Cellular Matrix (ECM) of Tissues in Health and Disease”

Adding to the achievements above was the exciting news that the work of current ANRF Scholar April Craft (Assistant Professor, Boston Children’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School, USA) was selected for a short talk at the conference entitled “Identifying Signals for Joint Cartilage Specification Using Novel ES Cell Models”.  More on April’s work can be found here.

Dr. Zaher Nahle, CEO of ANRF, expressed great enthusiasm for the partnership with the Gordon Research Conference: “We are thrilled that such outstanding candidates were identified for these important travel awards. Our research travel awards program is designed to facilitate the direct access of young scientists, with limited resources, to established researchers, giving them the opportunity to participate in professional meetings and publish their work. This is indispensable for sharing ideas, receiving feedback and sustaining the pipeline of new talent entering the field of Arthritis and Rheumatology. As such, we are proud of our partnership with the Gordon Research Conference. ANRF strives to support talented young investigators in general, and young female investigators in particular.”