Ines Reichert

Consultant Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgeon, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Ines Reichert has completed a PhD at Imperial College London prior to her Orthopaedic Training. She is a Consultant Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgeon at King’s College Hospital London a major trauma centre, with subspecialities Upper Limb Hand & Wrist, as well as Diabetic Foot Reconstruction.

She is the R&I Lead for Clinical Research in Trauma & Orthopaedics and leads Undergraduate Teaching in Trauma at her Trust.

Ines Reichert serves nationally on the BOA Research Committee, internationally on the ORS fracture healing section and is President-Elect for the British Orthopaedic Research Society (BORS).

She is specialising in basic science relevant to clinical problems and brings her experience in the conduct of clinical research as well as basic science projects together for improvement of patient care.

Professor Karina Wright

Professor of Orthopaedics and Bioengineering (BORS Treasurer Elect), Keele University/RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital (Oswestry)

Karina Wright is a basic scientist, based at the Keele laboratories in the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital Foundation Trust, Oswestry. She started her PhD there in 2005, studying cell therapy mechanisms in spinal cord injury. She is a Professor of Orthopaedics and Bioengineering and the Director of Keele’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine Research (launched last year). She leads modules in the Schools of Pharmacy and Bioengineering and Life Sciences on Applied/Translational Regenerative Medicine.

Her laboratory group at the RJAH develops and tests novel biological therapies for orthopaedic patients. Her team’s research transcends the bench to bedside translational pipeline, from in vitro analyses, organ-on-a-chip systems, pre-clinical models, clinical trials and finally NICE approved treatments. They are equally interested in learning from bedside to bench through reverse translational research, by collecting and analysing human cells and tissues and relating biological profiles to clinical outcomes in an effort to refine, tailor and develop novel treatments.

Professor Cosimo De Bari

Professor Cosimo De Bari is a Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Edinburgh. He is a practising rheumatologist and a translational scientist, and has expertise in musculoskeletal regenerative medicine and the pathophysiology of arthritis. His research focuses on joint health and disease, with a particular emphasis on cell-based therapies for cartilage repair and osteoarthritis.

Cosimo earned his medical degree summa cum laude from the University of Bari (Italy), where he also completed specialist training in rheumatology. He obtained his PhD from the University of Leuven (Belgium) before moving to King’s College London in 2003. In 2005, he was awarded an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship. From 2007, he held a Clinical Chair in Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology (formerly Translational Medicine) at the University of Aberdeen, where he founded and directed the Centre for Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Health, which was designated a Centre of Excellence in Rheumatology by EULAR.

In November 2024, Cosimo was appointed Chair of Rheumatology at the University of Edinburgh. He also serves as Deputy Editor for Osteoarthritis and Cartilage and Deputy Director of the Versus Arthritis Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Therapies Centre.

Professor Francesco Dell'Accio

Professor Dell’Accio is a clinical rheumatologist and a scientist whose interest is focused on regenerative medicine and osteoarthritis. He qualified as a clinical rheumatologist in Bari, Italy. He obtained his PhD in Belgium where he contributed to the R&D of ChondroCelect, the first EMEA-approved cell product for cartilage Repair. Since then he studied the molecular mechanism of cartilage healing and he has identified several potential therapeutic targets for cartilage Regeneration. Together with Dr Suzanne Eldridge, he has founded ReFleks, a company pursuing the use of recombinant Agrin for cartilage regeneration and treatment if osteoarthritis.

Professor Andrew McCaskie

BOA Research Committee Chair, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery, Interim Deputy Head of School of Clinical Medicine, Honorary Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, University of Cambridge & Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation

Professor Andrew McCaskie is Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Interim Deputy Head of the School of Clinical Medicine (following this he will resume the role as Head of the Department of Surgery) at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Consultant at Addenbrookes’ Hospital.

His clinical interest is lower limb, particularly hip disease in young adults. His translational research is focused on cell and regenerative therapies relating to bone and cartilage repair. This encompasses work to understand the role of cells and molecules in repair, alongside advanced imaging, related clinical trial work, precision health approaches and patient stratification.

He is Director of the Versus Arthritis Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Therapies Centre, which brings together several UK institutions and is a Principal Investigator at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute.

He is a past president of the Association of Professors of Orthopaedic Surgery and the British Orthopaedic Research Society and has served on the British Editorial Society of Bone & Joint Surgery Council of Management. He is the current Chair of the Research Committee of the BOA. He is an editor for Bailey and Love’s Short Practice of Surgery (27th & 28th Editions) and was inducted a Fellow of International Orthopaedic Research in 2019.

Professor Deborah Mason

Professor Deborah Mason is Co Principal Investigator and Preclinical Research Director in the Biomechanics and Bioengineering Research Centre Versus Arthritis at Cardiff University. Her research programme uses a range of cell, explant, animal and human models to determine how altered joint biomechanics influences biological signals relevant to pain and degeneration in osteoarthritis. After her BSc in Zoology and Genetics and PhD in Evolutionary Genetics, her post-doctoral research implicated glutamatergic signalling in mechanically-induced bone formation. Her research goals include testing new drugs in clinical trials for the prevention of post-traumatic osteoarthritis, devising biomarker assays for early osteoarthritis, and developing in vitro models for drug screening and biomarker selection. She aims to reveal mechanisms that link mechanical loading, pain, inflammation and joint destruction in arthritis, and exploit this knowledge for patient benefit. She has organized and published outputs from international workshops on how to conduct clinical trials for prevention of post-traumatic osteoarthritis.

Professor Mason is a Fellow of International Orthopaedic Research, Chair of Trustees and Past President of the British Orthopaedics Research Society and has also served on Committees for the International Combined Orthopaedic Research Society, Orthopaedics Research Society, and Bone Research Society. She is Translational Theme Lead on Versus Arthritis Musculoskeletal Research Advisory Group.