Abigail Evans – Biologist on Placement

Abigail, a second year Biology student at Sheffield Hallam University performed a 4-week project at The Surgical Discovery Centre. She investigated the presence, distribution and abundance of two cell surface markers; MT1-MMP and EphA2, which are suspected to induce metastasis of osteosarcoma neoplasms.

By investigating these markers, we hope to discover a correlation between expression and metastases in biopsies from cases seen at the Queens Veterinary Hospital. In addition, we hope to explore the potential of these markers as a therapeutic target to reduce metastases and improve prognosis of osteosarcoma patients.

**Amy Stelman - Research nurse**
Amy has many years experience working in the veterinary field, both in general practice and referral surgery. This includes six years as a specialist surgical nurse at the Queen's Veterinary School Hospital (QVSH), and then one year working as the Research Nurse in Small Animal Surgery for the Surgical Discovery Centre in the Department of Veterinary Medicine. Amy has recently taken up a position as the Clinical Research Co-ordinator at the QVSH and brings her experience in a clinical role to this research group. She also has a background in research, having completed a Masters by Research at Anglia Polytechnic University.

Angus Bain (2).jpg — **Angus Bain** - Engineering Student on Placement (4th Year)
Having covered general engineering for the first two years of his Degree at Cambridge University, he started to specialise in biomedical and mechanical engineering whilst on a year exchange at the National University of Singapore and has continued these interests into his final year. He carried out his final year project in collaboration with the Surgical Discovery Centre on motion capture and force plate analysis of the canine forelimb under the joint supervision of Professor Matthew Allen and Dr Michael Sutcliffe of the Engineering Department. This involves determining the kinematic and kinetic data of a dog's forelimb for a complete gait cycle and using the results to program a robot designed to test the effectiveness of elbow implants.

**Claudia Zindl- research assistant**
Claudia graduated in 2000 as a veterinarian from the Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover, Germany she went to do a Master’s thesis in Mexican Wolf Semen Cryopreservation at the St. Louis Zoo / St. Louis University, St Louis, MO. Thereafter she completed an additional project with Mexican zoos extracting reproductive hormones from Mexican wolf feaces to assess their reproductive cycles. Back in Germany Claudia worked as a veterinarian in a mixed practice focussed on pig health for four years, She then worked in a busy small animal referral clinic in Hannover, Germany for five years, followed by a one year surgical internship at Fitzpatrick Referrals, UK and a two year surgical research fellowship at The Ohio State University – Veterinary Medical Center, Columbus, OH. During her fellowship she carried out biomechanical testing of novel orthopaedic spinal implants for dogs and worked on canine spinal implant retrieval histology.

Fran+Photo.jpg — **Fran Penrose**-**Engineering Student**
Fran worked with us during her 4th year in the Department of Engineering - studying Mechanical and Bioengineering . Her project was under the joint supervision of Dr Michael Sutcliffe and Professor Matthew Allen.
The aim of the project was to establish whether accelerometers can be used to measure the forces a dog exerts on the ground during motion. This would be to allow data gathering in a more realistic environment, where the speed and directions of movement are not fixed by the type of test. Combining the ground forces with joint angle data will allow rough estimations of the magnitudes of forces in the leg joints, which could be used to help test the suitability and efficacy of different types of total knee replacement in dogs

**John D ouglas Piper** was the artist-in-residence based here at the Surgical Discovery Centre, working in collaboration with the department of veterinary medicine and anatomy. John is currently exploring themes surrounding animal motion and is developing a range of interior furnishing products based on his artwork.

**Jose Franco - research assistant**
Jose graduated in 2014 with a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Leon, Spain. He has worked extensively in molecular biology, with his final degree project on immunology and cloning, that lead to an internship in the El Bierzo Hospital Laboratory (Ponferrada) on testing and diagnoses of bacterial diseases. He was awarded a scholarship from the Ministry of Education in Spain to complete his Masters Degree looking specifically at the development of antibodies to block the binding of proteins which are involved in inflammatory processes.
Since joining the Surgical Discovery Centre Jose is investigating the genetics of osteosarcoma, in particular the effects of blocking specific genes on the development of specialised proteins, and their role in the growth of osteosarcoma within cells. He works tirelessly on a whole range of projects, assisting all areas of the lab.

Kenneth Johnson.jpg — **Professor Kenneth Johnson** is a visiting professor in the Surgical Discovery Centre at Cambridge from June 2017 till January 2018. During this time, he will be working on research on stress fractures, as well as use of computer navigation in orthopaedic surgery. Ken is a graduate of the University of Sydney where he also obtained a Masters and PhD degrees. He completed residency training in surgery at Colorado State University, and since then has worked in academia as an orthopaedic specialist in the USA, UK and Australia. He has specialist qualifications in surgery as a Diplomate of American College of Veterinary Surgeons, a Diplomate of European College of Veterinary Surgery, as well as being a Fellow of Australian College of Veterinary Scientists.
In addition, Prof Johnson organizes the AO courses on fracture treatment in Columbus Ohio and Sydney and is a past president of AO VET (an international foundation dedicated to fracture treatment in animals) Research on osteoarthritis, locked nailing of fractures, greyhound stress fractures and locking implants are among his interests. He is the author of over 110 clinical and research publications on orthopaedics, 30 book chapters, as well as several books including the new fifth edition of *Piermattei's Surgical Approaches to Bones and Joints*. In addition he is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Veterinary and Comparative Orthopaedics and Traumatology. Recently he was given the WSAVA/Hills Pet mobility award for his contributions to clinical research in orthopaedics in dogs and cats.

**Lisa Grassato** graduated *cum laude* in 2013 from The University of Veterinary Medicine of Bologna, Italy, and was awarded the best study-curriculum of her year. She then completed one year postgraduate training in the surgical department of the University Small Animal Hospital there. Thereafter she worked in a Small Animal Hospital in Florence for two years, and came back to the Bologna University Hospital as an emergency surgeon for dogs and cats in 2016. In the same year Lisa successfully applied for a PhD studentship at the University of Bologna, working on a clinical project on emergency surgeries in dogs, and in particular, focused on Gastric Dilatation-Volvulus. As part of her PhD programme she will spent a three-month period at the Surgical Discovery Centre, under the supervision of Prof. Matthew Allen; her project focuses on a pilot study using a 3D surface scanner to get measurements for dogs legs, with the aim of developing new supportive braces.

**Lucie Busnel – Visiting Biology student**
Lucie is a biology student at Université du Maine, Le Mans, France. She joined our team for a 3 months summer project studying the effect of gallium doped bio-glass on canine osteosarcoma cell line. To test the efficiency of gallium as possible bone cancer local therapy. This project has been done in collaboration with Dr Richard Martin from Aston University.
Gallium-containing bioglass appears to be a promising candidate to treat this disease. It is a solid material composed of silica, calcium oxide, sodium oxide and phosphorus pentoxide. When immersed in a body fluid, this material has the ability to bind to bone, to recognize tumour cells, destroy them and, to form a scaffold for bone regeneration. The coupling of gallium to bioglass is therefore an interesting source of research for the treatment of bone cancer.
This research work was an essential step in Lucie’s training to pass her technology degree and she successfully did pass in July 2019.

**Luisa Garcia** graduated from the Universidade Federal de Uberlandia, Brazil, in 2009 and completed a Masters Degree at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The project was related to two the major proteins found in stallion seminal plasma, called HSP-1/2, which are associated with fertility. Hereafter, I applied to Cambridge University to do a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Matthew J. Allen. Her project intends to evaluate the effects of a clinically relevant fractioned radiation therapy regimen on rabbit bone microstructure, mechanics and fracture healing.

Luke Johnson.jpg — **Luke Johnson- Engineering student**
Luke worked with us during his 4th year at the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge.
His involvement with the Surgical Discovery Centre started with an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme placement in the summer of 2016, and after specialising in Bioengineering in his third year he has returned to the Surgical Discovery Centre for his final year project, under the joint supervision of Professor Matthew Allen and Dr Michael Sutcliffe of the Engineering Department. With a working title “Robotic testing of Luke Johnson is a fourth year student at the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge.

Nick linz.jpeg — **Nicholas Linzner- Visiting Vet Student**
Nicholas is a veterinary student from Western University of Health Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine in Pomona, CA. His primary interests are radiology and exotic animal medicine, and he sought out a way to merge the two fields for his project with us in a way that creates a strong impact in both.
He collaborated with Prof Matthew Allen in summer of 2019 for two months to create a workflow for 3D printed custom orthotics in exotic species. The technique is applicable to limb bones of many species, although the focus was refined to common orthopedic issues associated with avian species. His goals were to create a workflow using CT scans to model a 3D printable internal splint that is lightweight, strong, and safe for the body. The workflow is currently being used in a pilot study for improving splints on humeral fractures in birds.

**Olivia Ogińska - Research Associate**
Olivia graduated in 2016 from The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Poland. During her university course, she completed multiple surgical externships in the referral centers in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. After graduation, Olivia moved to England to undergo a surgical internship at a private referral hospital in Surrey. That was followed by a period of time spent in general practice and, subsequently, a Small Animal Rotating Internship at Queen's Veterinary School Hospital, Cambridge University.
In January 2020, Olivia joined the Surgical Discovery Centre team for a research project focusing on novel strategies for managing orthopaedic infection under supervision of Professor Matthew Allen and their project is being conducted in collaboration with AO Trauma.

**Ollie Boyne - Engineering student**
Ollie joined us in 2019 as a fourth year engineering student at Downing College, studying Mechanical Engineering. He was undertaking his final project in cooperation with the Surgical Discovery Centre, under the joint supervision of Dr Michael Sutcliffe and Professor Matthew Allen. His project was aiming to extract kinematic and force data from standard video footage of dogs in motion.

*He was working in the Gait Lab to collect data on dogs in motion, in order to produce a system for predicting forces from motion capture data.*

FECD5765-87E5-4189-A0C8-FF1A75379EC6 (1).jpeg — **Petra Bonacic Bartolin- visiting Engineering PhD student**
Petra joined us for a 3 month visit combining engineering with orthopaedic research, under the joint supervision of Professors Michael Sutcliffe and Matthew Allen.
Petra graduated from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb, Croatia in 2011.
In 2019, Petra won a short – term fellowship in the University of Cambridge, which will involve experimental testing on the canine knee model to determine and compare the biomechanical parameters of biologically healthy knee joints and those who have an implant. The research is also carried out in order to improve the testing protocol, based on the processed data, and to improve the existing prosthesis and methods for treating damaged knee joints in dogs.
Recently she got National Award for best paper Biomechanical flaws of cutting-edge approaches in ACL repair surgery tested on a sheep model,18th ESSKA Congress, 9-12 May 2018 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

Rachel Lewis.jpg — **Rachel Lewis - Engineering student**
Rachel worked with us during her 4th year at the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge, specialising in mechanical engineering.
She is carrying out a 10 week research placement under the supervision of Professor Matthew Allen and Dr Michael Sutcliffe of the Engineering Department. The aim of the project is to design a simple surgical navigation system to aid the placement of the jig pin in canine cruciate ligament surgery.

**Ruby Baxter** is studying at Neale-Wade Academy and has a 4 week research placement organised with the Nuffield Foundation. Under the supervision of Charlotte Palmer here at The Surgical Discovery Centre, she is investigating the characteristics of 4 different canine osteosarcoma cell lines from different tumours. She is comparing their ability to grow and migrate in order to understand how the cell lines behave differently, and how these differences may affect the prognosis for canine patients.

**Scheon Ziyang Cao- Engineering student**
Scheon worked with us during his second year at Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge. he worked on a summer project on designing a workflow on producing custom orthotics for dogs using 3D scanning and printing technology, under the joint supervision of Professor Matthew Allen and Professor Michael Sutcliffe of the Engineering Department.

Alumni

Surgical Discovery Centre