PHILADELPHIA SPINE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM

2015 PLENARY SPEAKER
Dr. Jill P. Urban – Oxford University, UK
Regulation of Disc Cell Behaviour by the Physico-Chemical Environment
Monday, November 9, 2015 • 4:15 p.m.
Jill Urban, Ph.D. is an emeritus senior research fellow in the
Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at Oxford
University. Her research group works on physiology of cartilaginous
tissues with a particular interest on the regulation of the extracellular
physical environment in the intervertebral disc. Their work has also
focused on cellular responses to change in this environment in regard
to osmolarity, to factors influencing nutrient supply, and to mechanical
stress. Her group has close and long-standing collaborations with
research teams around the world: Professor Sally Roberts in Oswestry has provided molecular
expertise; Professor Jeremy Fairbank, Professor of Spinal Surgery in Oxford has supplied waste
surgical tissue for numerous studies; and with Professor Shirazi-Adl in Montréal has made important
contributions to the understanding of nutrient transport into the avascular disc.
2015 PSRS LIFETIME RESEARCH
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dr. Peter J. Roughley – Shriners Hospital, Montréal
Adventures in Disc Degeneration
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 • 5:30 p.m.
Dr. Roughley is a professor emeritus in the Departments of Surgery
and Human Genetics at McGill University in Montréal. He received
postdoctoral training in England at Charing Cross Hospital Medical
School and the Strangeways Research Laboratory, before moving to
Montréal in 1977. Since that time, he has had a research laboratory at
the Shriners Hospital for Children for studies on the proteoglycans
of articular cartilage and intervertebral disc and their involvement in
joint and disc pathology. His current disc research interests focuses
on the extracellular matrix changes that occur in degeneration and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis,
and initiating biological repair of the degenerate disc. His cartilage research focuses on the
involvement of extracellular matrix gene mutations on cartilage development, and the role of
metalloproteinases in articular cartilage degeneration in osteoarthritis. Until 2014, he also directed
the Molecular Diagnosis service of the hospital, where gene mutations were analyzed in patients
with skeletal dysplasias. Dr. Roughley is a past president of the Canadian Orthopaedic Research
Society. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers and has written 40 reviews and book
chapters relating to proteoglycans, cartilage and intervertebral disc.