OARSI Weekly Briefing - August 6, 2021 | Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI)

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Board of Directors Call for Nominations

The deadline to submit a nomination application for the OARSI Board of Directors is Tuesday, August 31st. The position is for a 4-year term beginning in May 2022. The Board requires members whose backgrounds, skills, and experience match the OARSI mission and its current and future needs. Service on the OARSI board demands a considerable commitment of time and talent to advance the goals and objectives of the organization. To learn more about the process and submit an application, please click HERE.

Member Spotlight: Mary Goldring

Over the course of the next few weeks we will spotlight the past Lifetime Achievement Award winners. This week’s Member Spotlight is 2018 winner, Mary Goldring.

How long have you been a member of OARSI and why did you join?

I believe that I joined OARSI (then OARS) in 1993. This was after Roy Altman invited me to chair a session and/or gave a talk at an annual meeting in Florida. It was intriguing to me that rheumatologists, including Roy, Sergio Jimenez, David Howell, etc., decided to form this research society in order to create a forum for osteoarthritis-related research distinct from the American College of Rheumatology and Orthopaedic Research Society. In addition, it was an international society from the outset with meetings alternating in the US and Europe and later Asia. Having delayed pursuit of a PhD to travel by joining the Peace Corps, teaching biology in Peru for two years, and then obtaining my PhD in Graham Russell’s lab in Sheffield, UK, where I first became interested in cartilage and bone biology, the opportunities to meet international collaborators and colleagues at OARSI were really appealing to me, as well as the travel opportunities to meetings, including Singapore, Florence, Sydney, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Ireland.

What do you enjoy most about OARSI?

I most enjoyed about OARSI that the meetings were, and largely continue to be, relatively small with few concurrent sessions and the many opportunities to bump into colleagues and meet informally with researchers from around the world. I would say that I have formed some of my closest friendships through OARSI, which have continued to the present time. I also enjoy the mentoring opportunities with enthusiastic young investigators in both informal and formal settings, especially the Friday night sessions with the social hour where it was reassuring to discuss science with our rising stars. The opportunity to design the sessions at the annual meeting through participation on the Program Committee was quite fun with the highlight as Program Co-Chair with Francis Berenbaum of the OARSI meeting in Boston in December 2005 during one of our famous blizzards (which surprisingly did not affect attendance). I also found it incredibly satisfying to serve on the OARSI Board from 2007 to 2013, developing policy and programs with leaders in the field.

Tell us a little bit about your research?

Following my early postdoctoral research focusing on inflammatory cytokine regulation of collagen synthesis and prostaglandin production by chondrocytes and fibroblasts in the context of rheumatoid arthritis, I became interested in the role of inflammation in regulating gene expression in cartilage, but in the context of osteoarthritis. To understand the mechanisms involved, we the developed in vitro models for studying human articular chondrocytes, including immortalized chondrocyte cell lines, which have been distributed to and used by many laboratories around the world. Recent work has involved relating findings in mouse models of osteoarthritis to aspects of the human disease.

What does winning the Lifetime Achievement Award mean to you?

It was absolutely thrilling to receive this honor and a bit daunting to realize that I have reached the stage in my career when it is necessary to consider my lifetime achievements. Importantly, it gave me the chance to look back and highlight my mentors and the opportunities that I have encountered along the way, as well as to give recognition and credit to the dedicated post-docs and students who have worked with me over the years.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

During the past few years, my husband Steve and I have done some major trips around the world, including Tanzania, Nepal (treks in the Anapurna region and on the Everest Trail), Bhutan, Galapagos with side trips to Ecuador and Peru, New Zealand, Italy, Sicily, and Patagonia (Argentina and Chile). We returned from Patagonia on March 5, 2020, with the pandemic looming and subsequent trips cancelled, happy to have been able to complete our last planned bucket-list trip. However, the lockdown forced us to look closer to home and, using AllTrails we “discovered” many fabulous places to hike nearby our homes in Newton and Wellfleet Massachusetts and in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I’ve also become addicted to yoga and have found more time for reading and cooking, while keeping in touch with friends around the world by Zoom as the new reality.

OARSI Rehabilitation Discussion Group

The OARSI Rehabilitation Discussion Group aims to bring together a network of researchers and clinicians who share a common interest in rehabilitation of people with osteoarthritis. With over 50 members, we endeavour to provide a forum for communication, networking, information sharing, and discussion and collaboration for osteoarthritis researchers working in the rehabilitation field. We work to facilitate the development and implementation of high quality research in rehabilitation, and contribute to mentoring of early career researchers in the rehabilitation area to increase research capacity.

We regularly undertake activities to advance the osteoarthritis rehabilitation research field. Our most recent collaborative research project led to a published narrative literature review on implementing exercise for hip and knee osteoarthritis, as well as development of an evidence-informed position statement and practical resources for the implementation of exercise. We also run journal club meetings, the most recent of which had more than 50 attendees.

If you would like more information on the Rehabilitation Discussion Group, you can email the Chair, Professor Kim Bennell (k.bennell@unimelb.edu.au). To join the Discussion Group, please follow the below steps.

Log in to OARSI.org
Click on the menu button in the top left of the screen
Select ‘My Profile’
Select ‘Edit
Select the ‘My Account’ tab
Scroll to Discussion Groups and select your group(s)

OARSI Live Call for Presenters

The OARSI Live webinar series is currently on hiatus and will resume this fall. We are looking to schedule our fall program and are seeking webinar presenters. If you would like to present on an OARSI Live webinar, please contact Vincenzo Nelli with a brief summary of your proposed presentation.

OARSI Connect '21 Recordings

Did you know that all of the recorded sessions from OARSI Connect ‘21 are available to registered attendees through April 2022!? If you missed a session because you attended another session or it occurred at a time that was inconvenient for you, you can view it by logging into the virtual meeting website. Just navigate to the Agenda page and select the session(s) you want to view.

If you missed OARSI Connect ‘21, you can still register and have access to the recordings. It simple, just register HERE.

Important Dates & Upcoming Deadlines

2021 Membership Dues: Be sure to renew your OARSI dues. Renew Now.
August 31, 2021 - Call for Board of Director Nominations Deadline
April 6 - 10, 2022 - OARSI World Congress in Berlin, Germany

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OARSI Weekly Briefing - August 6, 2021