Professor Christopher Little, BSc, BVMS, PhD
Director of the Raymond Purves Bone and Joint Research Lab at the Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, Australia
Professor Christopher Little, BSc, BVMS, PhD, is Director of the Raymond Purves Bone and Joint Research Lab at the Kolling Institute, University of Sydney, Australia. Chris is a qualified veterinarian with specialist surgery training and certification. He was awarded a PhD from the University of Sydney in 1996 and has been in full time medical research since then, completing post-doctoral Fellowships at the University of Cardiff in the UK and University of Melbourne, before being recruited to his current role in 2004.
Chris’s research focuses on defining the biochemical, cellular and molecular mechanisms of musculoskeletal (MSK) disease (in particular osteoarthritis, tendinopathy, and intervertebral disc degeneration) and how structural pathology relates to the key clinical symptoms of pain and disability. He is recognized for his expertise in pre-clinical animal models of MSK diseases, and their use in translating new knowledge of disease mechanisms into effective therapies.
His research has been funded through grants from various agencies/sectors (NHMRC, ARC, CRC, philanthropy, industry), has resulted in >200 publications, and facilitated mentoring of 24 PhDs and numerous post-doctoral Fellows. Chris is Deputy Editor of Osteoarthritis and Cartilage and sits on a number of Editorial Boards for other leading international MSK journals. He has been on the Board of Directors for a number of national and international research societies and was recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW, an ICORS Fellow of International Orthopaedic Research and a US Orthopaedic Research Society Fellow.
Professor Jiajia Zhou
University of Technology Sydney
Dr Jiajia Zhou is a Professor in the Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney. She received her PhD in Materials Science and Engineering in 2013 from Zhejiang University, and then joined the China Jiliang University. In 2016, she joined the UTS Institute for Biomedical Materials and Devices, where her work has focused on making nanoparticles smaller while preserving their valuable optical properties and exploring the photophysical behavior of single nanoparticles. This research has advanced resolution and sensitivity in bioimaging and sensing applications. She has also applied these nanoparticles and related technologies to rapid COVID-19 antigen testing, as well as protein detection for the food industry.
Professor Zhou is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, a National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader, and a Chief Investigator for Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology. She has won a number of major awards including the 2024 Pawsey Medal, 2022 David Syme Research Award, 2019 Sturges Prize, and 2018 Nanomaterials Young Investigator Award. She was also a finalist in the 2024 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year, 2020 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Emerging Leader in Science and 2019 Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher. Zhou has published more than 110 papers in a range of prestigious journals including 12 Nature X (2 Nature, 4 Nature Photonics, 1 Nature Methods and 5 Nature Communications). Her work has attracted over 8000 citations with a Google h-index of 44.
Associate Professor Kishore Rajendran, PhD
Mayo Clinic
Dr. Kishore Rajendran is an Associate Professor of Radiology and Associate Consultant at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA. He is an imaging scientist at the Mayo Clinic CT Clinical Innovation Center that focuses on developing, evaluating and translating novel CT technologies. Dr. Rajendran obtained his PhD from University of Otago, New Zealand, and MSc from Coventry University, UK.
Dr. Rajendran’s research uses quantitative imaging biomarkers measured using high-resolution multienergy CT technologies to enable early diagnosis of musculoskeletal disorders, guide interventions, monitor treatment response, and measure clinical outcomes. His research encompasses the technical evaluation of new photon-counting detector CT systems, acquisition and image formation methods, and image postprocessing frameworks for subsequent implementation in radiology practice. He has published seminal papers on physics and clinical topics pertinent to photon-counting detector CT.
Dr. Rajendran is the Chair of the Working Group on Physics of Quantitative Imaging at the American Association of Physicists in Medicine, is a member of the Mayo Clinic Radiology Research Committee and is an editorial board member of European Radiology. His research is supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, and Mayo Clinic Radiology.
Professor Ling Qin
Choh-Ming Li Professor of Orthopaedics & Traumatology (http://www.ort.cuhk.edu.hk/staff-qinling.html)
Professor Ling QIN is Choh-Ming Li Professor of Orthopaediatrics and Traumatology and Director of CUHK SZ-HK Innovation Technology Institute and Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory of the Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology. Professor Qin has been working on basic and translation research in orthopaedics with focus on diagnosis and pathophysiology of bone metabolic disorders and their treatment using innovative biometals as Class III medical implants over the past 30 years. Professor Qin is editor-in-chief of Journal of Orthopaedic Translation and past president of International Chinese Musculoskeletal Research Society (ICMRS). As principle investigator, Professor Qin published 9 books and over 460 SCI journal papers, including Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Materials Today etc., with a H-index of 92. He also holds over 40 inventions or new utility patents from PRC and USA. His pioneer scientific and translational research work in developing innovative biodegradable Mg-based metals for orthopaedic applications has been highlighted in Nature and Science.
Professor QIN received many prestigious honors and awards, including Member of Academia of Europea (MAE) and Fellow of AIMBE, ICORS, ASBMR, and IUSBSE attributed to his contribution to musculoskeletal research and innovation of biomaterials for orthopaedic applications.
Associate Professor Marjolein van der Krogt
Director of the Clinical Movement Analysis Laboratory at the Amsterdam University Medical Center in The Netherlands
Marjolein van der Krogt is associate professor and director of the Clinical Movement Analysis Laboratory at the Amsterdam University Medical Center in The Netherlands. She is also president-elect of the European Society of Movement analysis in Adults and Children (ESMAC). She obtained a cum laude MSc degree in Human Movement Sciences and a PhD in Rehabilitation Medicine, focusing on musculoskeletal simulation of gait problems in children with cerebral palsy. During her postdoc period, she was a visiting scholar at Stanford University neuromuscular biomechanics lab. In her combined function as research professor and head of the clinical gait lab, she strives towards integrating scientific research and clinical care. This translational research approach helps to perform truly patient-oriented research projects and improve health care directly by research outcomes. Her research line focuses on a better understanding of movement deviations and their underlying neural and musculoskeletal impairments in children and adults with neurological disorders. To this end, she developed and applied novel technologies including predictive simulations of gait, patient-specific foot and ankle modeling, 3D-ultrasound muscle imaging, and systematic interpretation of gait analysis data. In her lecture, she will present how these technologies can help to improve diagnostics and evaluation of orthopedic surgery in pediatric populations.
Professor Mark Taylor
Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Professor Taylor has over 25 years in experience in orthopaedic biomechanics and has spent time in both academia and industry. After completing his PhD at Queen Mary and Westfield College, London (1997), he has worked for Finsbury Orthopaedics (1997-1999), the University of Southampton (1998-2012) and Flinders University (2012 – to date). Prof Taylor’s main area of research is the applications of in silico medicine to orthopaedics, with research spanning diagnosis of osteoporosis to pre-clinical testing, in silico clinical trials and surgical planning of total hip and knee replacements. Recently, he has focussed on assessing the ability of computational models to predict in vivo performance, which is an essential step to enabling the wider adoption of these tools in routine clinical practice.
Professor Massimo Sartori
Head of the Neuromuscular Robotics Chair at the University of Twente in The Netherlands
Massimo Sartori is a Full Professor and head of the Neuromuscular Robotics Chair at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, where he also directs the Neuromechanical Modelling & Engineering Lab. His research focuses on understanding how human movement emerges from the interplay between the nervous and the musculoskeletal systems. Prof. Sartori’s lab combines neural interfacing with musculoskeletal modelling, for the development of symbiotic robotic exoskeletons and bionic limbs that can restore movement following neuromuscular injuries. On these topics Massimo has contributed to the development of open-source software for musculoskeletal modelling including CEINMS, MyoSuite, MOtoNMS. Massimo has obtained several prestigious blue-sky research fundings from EU’s premiere funding agency, the European Research Council. He has created patented technology in the field of wearable sensors, exoskeletons, and bionic legs with leading companies such as OttoBock HealthCare. He currently chairs the IEEE RAS Technical Committee on BioRobotics. He is Associate Editor at the IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. He is a member of scientific societies including: the European Society of Biomechanics, IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, IEEE International Consortium on Rehabilitation Robotics. Prof. Sartori obtained his PhD in Information Engineering (2011) from the University of Padova (Italy) and was Visiting Scholar at the University of Western Australia (WA, Australia), Griffith University (QLD, Australia) and Stanford University (CA, USA). He conducted his post-doc at the University of Göttingen (Germany) where he become Junior Research Group Leader in 2015. Since 2017 he is with the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
Associate Professor Serena Duchi
Dept. of Surgery, The University of Melbourne & ACMD
A/Prof Duchi is a cellular biologist specializing in musculoskeletal diseases and regenerative medicine. Her career blends international collaboration, research leadership, industry partnerships, and translational science, achieving notable advancements in bioengineering.
She earned her PhD in Cell Biology & Physiology in 2009 through a joint program between the University of Bologna and the Medical University of South Carolina in USA. Early in her career at Italy’s Rizzoli Orthopaedics Institute (2011-2015), she focused on musculoskeletal diseases, sparking her interest in regenerative medicine.
In 2016, Serena Duchi joined the University of Melbourne’s Department of Surgery and the Aikenhead Center for Medical Discovery (ACMD). Since 2021, she has led the REMOD group, focusing on cartilage regeneration and bone disease modeling. She has secured over $1.5 M in funding, including from the MRFF-ARISTOCRAT-Stem Cell Therapies Mission grant that will lead to the first in human trial in 2025. She received recognition such as the Veski Innovator of the Year award and finalist positions for the Australian Museum Eureka Awards. Her industry collaborations include TRICEP™ and AXCELDA®, and she holds several registered patents. With over 60 publications and more than 2,700 citations, her work demonstrates significant impact, highlighting her leadership in the field.
Professor Richie Gill, BEng, DPhil, DSc, CEng, FIPEM, FHEA, FIOR
Centre for Therapeutic Innovation
Richie Gill is Professor of Healthcare Engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath. His work is characterized by a strong emphasis on biomechanics, medical engineering, and the development of personalized treatments for musculoskeletal conditions. He is affiliated with multiple research centres including the Centre for Therapeutic Innovation, Centre for Bioengineering & Biomedical Technologies (CBio), and the Bath Institute for the Augmented Human.
Academic Background and Qualifications
Professional Roles and Recognition:
Professor Gill’s work demonstrates a strong commitment to translating research findings into practical solutions that improve patient outcomes. His publications reflect a wide range of research interests and collaborations with researchers in diverse fields, including surgeons, engineers, and sports medicine specialists
Professor Roberta Faccio
Washington University School of Medicine
Dr. Roberta Faccio is the Jerome J. Gilden Distinguished Professor of Orthopedics at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis MO, USA. Dr Faccio is also the Associate Director of the Musculoskeletal Research Center, the co-Director of the Molecular and Cell Biology PhD Program, and co-Leader of the Basic Science Program at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University.
Dr Faccio’s laboratory is at the forefront of studying the interactions between bone cells and immune cells in the context of primary and metastatic tumor growth. Her group has expanded the concept of the tumor-bone vicious cycle where the bone resorbing osteoclasts were considered central regulators of tumor growth in the bone through the release of bone-stored factors that stimulated tumor cell proliferation. By using genetic models as well as pharmacological inhibitors of osteoclasts and T cells, Dr Faccio’s team demonstrated that the presence of an immune suppressive milieu (absence or inactivation of T cells) can favor tumor growth in bone despite inhibition of osteoclast activity (Zhang Cancer Res 2011). These finding prompted investigating the bone-derived factors and bone marrow stromal populations orchestrating these systemic immune suppressive effects. The team discovered that the bone microenvironment responds to the presence of extraskeletal tumors in the skin (melanoma), lung (adenocarcinoma) and breast (ER+ and Triple negative breast cancer) by inducing the upregulation of bone-derived Dickopf-1 (DKK1), a potent inhibitor of the Wnt b-catenin pathways, and favoring the accumulation of immature myeloid populations and the expansion of mesenchymal cells with fibroblastic features. Dr Faccio’s laboratory discovered that Dkk1 has profound immune suppressive effects (D’amico JEM 2016). By inhibiting beta-catenin activation in myeloid populations (Capietto JEM 2013, D’amico JEM 2016), Dkk1 leads to the expansion of Cd11b+Ly6G+ myeloid cells and suppression of anti-tumor T cell and NK cell responses. Dkk1 can also directly suppress NK-cell mediated killing of tumor cells (Lee Nat Comm 2025), and its neutralization restores anti-tumor immunity in the primary and bone metastatic settings. In searching for the mesenchymal populations responsible for producing Dkk1 during tumor progression, Dr Faccio’s team also discovered the presence of osteoprogenitor Osterix(Osx)/Sp7+ cells acquiring fibroblastic features, with ability to leave the bone marrow and travel to the primary tumors where they remodel the extracellular matrix and support tumor growth. These findings position the bone as a central orchestrator of tumor progression, exerting systemic effects that favor tumor cell proliferation at extraskeletal site and create an immune suppressive, tumor conducive environment.
20 - 24 October 2025
Adelaide Convention Centre
North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, Australia
12 Stirling Street
Thebarton SA 5031