Greetings!
Welcome to the 2025 Washington University Musculoskeletal Research Center Symposium. This is our 14th annual Symposium. Our objective is to provide an opportunity for musculoskeletal researchers to network and talk science, and to provide a platform for early-career faculty, trainees and staff from member labs to present their work. Please take advantage of our time together to interact with your fellow attendees, including those outside your “usual circle”, and to learn something new.
This year we have expanded our geographic range to welcome attendees from beyond Saint Louis, including the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Iowa, and Vanderbilt University.
We have an exciting, full-day program with some new twists. The oral presentations feature the 2024 Pilot & Feasibility Awardees, as well as 18 authors of top-rated abstracts who will present either 7-minute or 3-minute (poster teaser) talks. The Poster Session features 69 presenters, including 28 Poster Award Finalists. We have four invited speakers: Keynote Speaker, Dr. Mary L. Bouxsein from Harvard Medical School, and Early-Stage Spotlight Speaker, Dr. Sun Peck from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as well as two career development speakers, Dr. Megan Killian from University of Michigan and Dr. JQ Xiao from Inotiv Co, who are MRC alumni. Finally, we will hear from 4 Science SLAM! presenters during the reception.
Thanks to our abstract reviewers; each abstract was scored by three reviewers. Thank you to the organizing committee for putting together the program: Victor Brito, Gaurav Swarnkar, Jie Shen, Kunjun Khanna and Deb Veis. In selecting presenters and poster finalists, we considered the abstract scores, as well as topic, lab and gender diversity. Lastly, a big “Thank You” to Kami McGhee for all her efforts in planning and organizing the meeting, from abstract submissions and reviews, to venue logistics, to assembling this program.
Thank you for joining us. I hope you enjoy the meeting.
Matt Silva
Musculoskeletal Research Center Co-Director