News

December 2016

PhD Position Available 16 December 2016 We have a PhD position available, using ultrasound imaging to investigate human tendon mechanics in greater detail. We are looking for someone with a background in biomechanics or medical physics (ultrasound). More details » [more]

Most highly cited paper award 14 December 2016 Most highly cited paper award: Our paper "Microstructural stress relaxation mechanics in functionally different tendons" published in Med Eng Physics 2013 is is one of their top five most highly cited papers during 2014 and 2015! Read it Here! [more]

PDRA Position Available 12 December 2016 We have a new two year PDRA position available, looking to develop ultrasound imaging to investigate tendon mechanics in greater detail. We need someone with a good background in medical physics and ultrasound imaging. [more]

November 2016

Farewell to Chavaunne 14 November 2016 We are all sad to say goodbye to Chavaunne, but delighted for her success, achieving an Arthritis Research UK Fellowship based at the Royal Veterinary College, in which she will focus on interfascicular matrix cells. Well done Chavaunne and Good Luck! [more]

October 2016

TV Appearances 6 October 2016 Over the summer, we helped film an episode of the award winning CBBC show "Operation Ouch!" In which they were investigating just how amazingly strong tendons are. We had a great fun performing the experiments. Here is a picture we took with the presenters, Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken. ... [more]

July 2016

Graduation Day 22 July 2016 Congratulations Dharmesh - we all enjoyed watching you graduate on Friday!

Summer Away Day 15 July 2016 We teamed up with Martin Knight's research group again for an away day in North London, involving outdoor adventure at Go Ape! We had great weather to enjoy a picnic after all the activity - well done to everyone for braving the heights! [more]

Group attends SB3C2016 4 July 2016 A number of us attended the SB3C conference in Washington this summer, presenting studies relating to tendon healthy mechanics and the behaviour of tendon cells under different physiologically relevant types of loading. [more]

June 2016

Papers Published 24 June 2016 We have had a paper pulished in Acta Biomaterialia describing further the fatigue resistance of the IFM in energy storing tendons. The elastic behaviour of the IFM appears critical for tendon healthy function. We have also published a fun letter in and the Journal of Biomechanics considering tendon nomenclature which ... [more]

Professor Screen Interviewed for a Women in Engineering blog 23 June 2016 Professor Screen recently talked to Elsevier about her research and why she chose engineering as a career: https://www.elsevier.com/physical-sciences/engineering-and-technology [more]

April 2016

Dr Thorpe and Professor Birch talking at a special BORS Instron mechanical loading event 4 April 2016 Instron are running a special session at an upcoming BORS event, looking at mechanical testing of soft tissues. Dr Thorpe and Professor Birch will do a joint presentation, concerning the difficulties in testing tendon and some of the various solutions we have developed. [more]

March 2016

Professor Screen talking at the IOC Conference next year 28 March 2016 The international Olympic Committee are holding their 2016 conference in Monaco, and Professor Screen will be talking as part of an exciting session looking at tendinopathy management: http://www.ioc-preventionconference.org/ Symposium 12: Prevention of tendinopathy; how to play the game? [more]

Abstracts accepted for SB3C2016 14 March 2016 Congratulations to Chavaunne, Princess, Daniel and Dharmesh, all of whom have had their abstracts accepted for presentation at the 2016 Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering and Biotransport Conference in Washington DC. Chavaunne has an oral presentation looking at fatigue properties of the IFM, and we have posters covering tenocyte mechanotransduction behaviour under both 10... [more]

Presentations at BSMB 7 March 2016 Congratulations to Marta and Dharmesh who have both had their abstracts accepted for oral presentation at the upcoming British Society of Matrix Biology meeting in Chester. We will be covering some of our latest data about IFM function in the human Achilles tendon and how elastin is highly localised to ... [more]

February 2016

Journal of Anatomy paper published 22 February 2016 We have just published another article further describing the compositional differences between positional and energy storing tendons, highlighting the increased levels of lubricin and elastin in the IFM to enable fascicle sliding. Congratulations to our two summer students, Kabelan and Jade for their first publication! Chavaunne T Thorpe, Kabelan J ... [more]

Tendon cilia paper published 15 February 2016 First tendon cilia paper from our group published: We have just published a paper looking at the effects of stress deprivation on cilia length in both the IFM and within fascicles. We have shown for the first time how the IFM is more susceptible to degeneration with stress deprivation and ... [more]

Our Research Featured in Horse and Hound Magazine 11 February 2016 Our recent findings published in the Nature Journal "Scientific Reports" were featured in Horse&Hound magazine last week!! Chavaunne Thorpe, Mandy Peffers, Deborah Simpson, Elizabeth Halliwell, Hazel Screen, and Peter Clegg (2016) Anatomical heterogeneity of tendon: Fascicular and interfascicular tendon compartments have distinct proteomic composition. Here's the link for the paper: ... [more]

January 2016

Scientific Reports Article Published 4 January 2016 We have just had a paper accepted in the Nature Journal "Scientific Reports": Chavaunne Thorpe, Mandy Peffers, Deborah Simpson, Elizabeth Halliwell, Hazel Screen, and Peter Clegg (2016) Anatomical heterogeneity of tendon: Fascicular and interfascicular tendon compartments have distinct proteomic composition. It's attracted some media interest: Phys Soc: http://phys.org/news/2016... [more]