Otto Juhl, a graduate student in the BEST Lab, won first place in VCU's College of Engineering 3 Minute Thesis competition with his thesis on "Artificial Bone to Facilitate Healing". 3 Minute Thesis is a world wide competition that is preformed at numerous universities across the globe.

Three abstracts from the BEST Lab were selected to be presented at the Orthopedic Research Society Annual Conference in New Orlease, Louisiana. The abstracts included Evaluation of A Nanoemulsion Synthesis Technique on Nano-Carbonated Hydroxyapatite and Control of Nanosphere Size, Hydroxyapatite Nanorods and Nanowires Enhance Osteoblastic Differentiation in Hydroxyapatite/Chitosan Coatings, and Single Limb Immobilization Model for [...]

The BEST Lab recently welcomed five new students to the lab interested in pursing musculoskeletal research. Camilla Meroni, a visiting Ph.D student from Italy, and undergraduates: Preston Lofgran, Katherine Kloecker, Ushna Arora, and Nikki Yadav.

Christopher Brunkhorst a BME undergraduate was awarded the Amgen Scholarship. Through this scholarship Chris will conduct research in the fields of biomaterials and bioelectronics over 9 weeks at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ravi Shankar accepted a UROP grant through Virginia Commonwealth University. This grant enables Ravi to continue research on varying substrate topography and the efficiency of hydroxyapatite and other synthetic coating on cell proliferation and osteogenic ability.