News

Edward M. Schwarz, Ph.D., the Burton Professor of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, has been appointed to the additional role of director of URMC's Center for Musculoskeletal Research (CMSR).

Schwarz replaces Regis J. O'Keefe, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Orthopaedics, who remains chair but was recently named Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at URMC.

In addition to leading the CMSR, Schwarz operates a laboratory that focuses on finding solutions to bone loss due to conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, infections, tumors that spread to bone, and bone destruction near the implants used in reconstructive surgery. He also leads a project to develop a vaccine to prevent life-threatening methicillin-resistant staphylococcus (MRSA) infections following bone and joint surgery.

Tochukwu Chuka Ikpeze, a post-baccalaureate research trainee, in Dr. Edward Schwarz's lab won two prestigious research awards at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), November 9-12 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Chuka was 1 of 16 recipients of Best Research in Immunology as well as 1 of 41 students who received the Interdisciplinary Award. Along with a certificate, Chuka was awarded $300 from the ABRCMS. The ABRCMS is a national conference designed to encourage undergraduate, postbaccalaureate and graduate students to pursue advanced training in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, including mathematics.

A medication already approved to build bone mass in patients with osteoporosis also builds cartilage around joints and could potentially be repurposed to treat millions of people suffering from arthritis, according to orthopaedic researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

The study authors hope their laboratory findings, published in the current issue of Science Translational Medicine, will set the stage for the first human clinical trials to test human parathyroid hormone (brand name: Forteo) in this growing patient population.

Among many collaborators, on this article, from the University of Rochester Medical Center were Drs. Edward M. Schwarz, Ph.D. and Hani Awad, Ph.D.

Orthopaedics and Biomedical Engineering professor, Edward Schwarz has been awarded a P30 Core Center grant that will provide shared facilities and services to NIH-funded investigators who are addressing scientific problems in musculoskeletal biology and medicine, in order to improve efficiency, accelerate the pace of research, and facilitate clinical translation. It also facilities the development and promotion of Research Assistant Professors (RAP) and unfunded physician-scientists (UPS) to become national leaders.

X-ray of a hipbone

University of Rochester Medical Center orthopaedic scientists are a step closer to developing a vaccine to prevent life-threatening methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections following bone and joint surgery.

The Orthopaedic Research Society invited URMC researchers to present their findings on Jan. 16, 2011, at the ORS annual meeting in Long Beach, Calif. The team is led by Edward M. Schwarz, Ph.D., professor of Orthopaedics and associate director of the URMC Center for Musculoskeletal Research. John Varrone, a second-year graduate student in Schwarz's lab, will discuss the data at ORS and the ongoing search for attractive molecular candidates for use in a vaccine.