Musculoskeletal Center Seminars and Meetings

May 26, 2026

9:00am - 3:15pm

North Campus Research Complex, Bldg 18, Football Room (Dining Hall) 
2800 Plymouth Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48109

External Advisors:

Karyn Esser, PhD 
Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD 
Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speaker:

Renny Franceschi, PhD 
Marcus L. Ward Collegiate Professor of Dentistry 
Emeritus and Professor of Biological Chemistry  
Emeritus in the Medical School

The 10th Annual Musculoskeletal Health Symposium was held on Tuesday, May 26, 2026 in the North Campus Research Complex, Building 18, Football Room (Dining Hall); in addition to the keynote presentation, the symposium featured a poster session highlighting work by junior faculty, trainees, students, fellows, staff, and house officers. Trainees (students, postdoctoral fellows, house officers) were eligible to compete for 1 of 3 travel awards ($650/award). Awardees were selected based on the following criteria: Abstracts designated for the poster competition were judged, and six finalists were selected to give short podium presentations at the Symposium. Three travel award recipients were chosen from these finalists and were announced at the conclusion of the meeting. 

We are very excited about the opportunity for our community coming together for this event to celebrate the incredible MSK research being conducted at UM and our collaborative institutions. Thank you to all (inside or outside UofM) who are able to attend.

Missed the Symposium or want to revisit a presentation?
We are in the process of editing the recording so you can view the full Symposium event, including the keynote presentation by Dr. Renny Franceschi, Faculty Talks, and Travel Award presentations, please check back.

 You can also browse photos from the event in the photo gallery.

Agenda (all times in EST):  will be available in May 2026

8:30-9:00 am            Poster Setup and Refreshments

9:00-9:05 am            Welcome and MiMHC Update 

9:05-10:05 am          Faculty Presentations 

                                        -Mario Fabiilli, PhD

                                        -Randy Duncan, PhD 

                                        -Eri Takematsu, PhD  

10:05-10:15 am        Break

10:15 - 11:45 am      Travel Award Competition 

11:45-12:00 pm        Group Photo

12:00-12:30 pm        Lunch 

12:30-2:00 pm          Poster Session (45 min. odds/45 min. evens)

2:00-3:00 pm            Keynote Address 

                                        -Renny Franceschi, PhD  

                                            "From then to now; 30 years of bone biology at Michigan"  

3:00-3:15 pm           Award Presentations & Conclusion 

The primary mission of the monthly Musculoskeletal Research in Progress (MSK) seminar series is community building. This seminar is held the 3rd Wednesday of each month (Sept – May), in rooms ABC of the BSRB (4:00-5:00pm, unless noted otherwise). NOTE: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all seminars are being held as hybrid meetings, see below for Zoom meeting link if you are unable to attend in person. The MSK is attended by trainees, staff, clinicians, and basic scientists from within and outside the musculoskeletal community. The seminars are structured differently than a traditional seminar because we try to pair up faculty and senior trainees to provide an overview of their work, to generate provocative discussions, and to foster new interactions/collaborations among investigators. The presentations are multidisciplinary, ranging from metabolomics to tissue-engineered ACL constructs to super-high resolution (molecular) imaging to the use of nano-particles in treating osteosarcomas to all other musculoskeletal research topics.

If interested in presenting, please contact one of the Organizers:

Megan Killian, PhD; [email protected]

Karl Jepsen, PhD; [email protected]

Sarah Boston, Executive Assistant; [email protected]

May 30, 2025

9:00am - 3:30pm

North Campus Research Complex, Bldg 18, Football Room (Dining Hall)

External Advisors:

Karyn Esser, PhD

Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD

Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speaker:

Alayna E. Loiselle, PhD

Associate Professor, Department of Orthopaedics, Center for Musculoskeletal Research

Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

University of Rochester Medical Center

Agenda: The full agenda (a pdf file available for download and printing) will be in May, 2025.

The 9th Annual Musculoskeletal Health Symposium will be held on Friday, May 30, 2024 in the North Campus Research Complex, Building 18, Football Room (Dining Hall); in addition to the keynote presentation the symposium will feature a poster session highlighting work by junior faculty, trainees, students, fellows, staff, and house officers. Trainees (students, fellows, house officers) are eligible to compete for 1 of 3 travel awards ($650/award). Awardees will be selected as follows: abstracts designated for the poster competition will be judged and 6 finalists selected to give short podium presentations at the Symposium. Of these, 3 will be selected for travel awards to be announced at the end of the meeting.

We are very excited about the opportunity for our community coming together for this event to celebrate the incredible MSK research being conducted at UM and our collaborative institutions. Thank you to all (inside or outside UofM) who are able to attend.

We would appreciate you forwarding an invitation to others (inside or outside UM) that may be interested in attending.

Please use the following link to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1299297266099?aff=oddtdtcreator. There is no cost to register. Any questions regarding registration, please contact Sarah Boston ([email protected]).

Agenda (all times in EST):  The full agenda and Poster Abstracts book is available for downloading.

8:30-9:00 am Poster Setup and Refreshments

9:00-9:15 am Welcome and MiMHC Update – Megan Killian, PhD

9:15-10:45 am Faculty Presentations (Lauren Surface, PhD Moderator)

Jun Hee Lee, PhD - “High-resolution exploration of skeletal muscle transcriptome using Seq-Scope”

Ann Decker, DMD, PhD - “Regulation of innate immunity in alveolar bone regeneration”

Jessica Turnier, MD, MS - “A single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of juvenile dermatomyositis muscle to accelerate precision medicine care"

10:45am - 12:00pm Poster Session and Lunch

12:00-1:30pm Travel Award Competition (Adam Abraham, PhD Moderator) 

Adrienne Giannone - “Investigating the role of Sox5 in synovial fibroblast function during post-traumatic osteoarthritis”

Easton Farrell - “PIEZO1 promotes synovial fibrosis and inflammation”

Helen Tran - “Efferocytosis dynamics of murine synovial fibroblasts in PTOA”

Gerald Har - “High-resolution 13 C-metabolic analysis reveals accelerated osteocytic citrate production in chronic kidney disease is associated with protection of the kidney from further injury”

Thomas Wilson - “MiR-126-3p attenuates knee osteoarthritis in part by regulating angiogenesis"

Victoria Maglaras - “T-cells drive sexual dimorphism in experimental periodontitis"

1:30-1:45pm Break

1:45-2:45pm Keynote Address (Susan Brooks, PhD, Moderator)

Alayna E. Loiselle, PhD - “S100a4 in soft tissue fibrosis: from fundamental cell biology to translational science” 

2:45-3:00pm Award Presentations & Conclusion - Megan Killian, PhD

May 16, 2024
9:00am - 4:15pm

D. Dan and Betty Kahn Auditorium and Atrium
A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building

External Advisors:

Karyn Esser, PhD

Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD

Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speaker:

Teresa Zimmers, PhD
Professor of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology
School of Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University

The 8th Annual Musculoskeletal Health Symposium will be held on Thursday, May 16, 2024 in the Biomedical Science Research Building, BSRB; in addition to the keynote presentation the symposium will feature a poster session highlighting work by junior faculty, trainees, students, fellows, staff, and house officers. Trainees (students, fellows, house officers) are eligible to compete for 1 of 3 travel awards ($650/award). Awardees will be selected as follows: abstracts designated for the poster competition will be judged and 6 finalists selected to give short podium presentations at the Symposium. Of these, 3 will be selected for travel awards to be announced at the end of the meeting.

We are very excited about the opportunity for our community coming together for this event to celebrate the incredible MSK research being conducted at UM and our collaborative institutions. Thank you to all (inside or outside UofM) who are able to attend.

We would appreciate you forwarding an invitation to others (inside or outside UM) that may be interested in attending. Here is a downloadable flyer on the Symposium you can share with others.

Agenda: The full agenda is available as a pdf file download and printing.

May 11, 2023
9:00am - 4:15pm

D. Dan and Betty Kahn Auditorium and Atrium
A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building

External Advisors:

Karyn Esser, PhD

Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD

Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speaker:

Eric Orwoll, MD
Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Clinical Nutrition, School of Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University

The 7th Annual Musculoskeletal Health Symposium will be held on Tuesday, May 11, 2023 in the Biomedical Science Research Building, BSRB. We were very excited about the opportunity for our community coming together for this event to celebrate the incredible MSK research being conducted at UM and our collaborative institutions. In addition to the keynote presentation the symposium will feature a poster session highlighting work by junior faculty, trainees, students, fellows, staff, and house officers. Trainees (students, fellows, house officers) are eligible to compete for 1 of 3 travel awards ($650/award). Awardees will be selected as follows: abstracts designated for the poster competition will be judged and 6 finalists selected to give short podium presentations at the Symposium. Of these, 3 will be selected for travel awards to be announced at the end of the meeting.

Thank you to all (inside or outside UofM) who are able to attend.

Agenda (Eastern Times): The full agenda and Poster Abstract book are available for downloading. 

May 17, 2022
9:00am - 4:00pm

D. Dan and Betty Kahn Auditorium and Atrium
A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building

External Advisors:

Karyn Esser, PhD
Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD
Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speakers:

Stephen Parker, PhD and Kayvan Najarian, PhD
Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics, University of Michigan

The 6th Annual Musculoskeletal Health Symposium was held on Tuesday, May 17, 2022 in the Biomedical Science Research Building, BSRB with a remote viewing option. In addition to the keynote presentation the symposium featured a poster session highlighting work by junior faculty, trainees, students, fellows, staff, and house officers. Trainees (students, fellows, house officers) were eligible to compete for 1 of 3 travel awards ($650/award). Awardees were selected as follows: abstracts designated for the poster competition were judged and 6 finalists selected to give short podium presentations at the Symposium. Of these, 3 were selected for travel awards announced at the end of the meeting.

We were very excited about the opportunity for our community coming together for this event to celebrate the incredible MSK research being conducted at UM and our collaborative institutions.

Thank you to all (inside or outside UofM) that were able to attend.

Agenda (Eastern Times): The full agenda as well the Poster Abstract book are available for downloading. 

May 19, 2021
9:00am - 4:00pm

Virtual "Zoom" meeting

External Advisors:

Karyn Esser, PhD
Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD
Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speaker:

Deneen Wellik, PhD
Chair and Professor,
Cell & Regenerative Biology
University of Wisconsin - Madison

The 5th Annual Musculoskeletal Health Symposium was held on Wednesday, May 19, 2021 via "Zoom"; in addition to Dr Wellik's keynote presentation the symposium featured a poster session highlighting work by junior faculty, trainees, students, fellows, staff, and house officers. Trainees (students, fellows, house officers) were eligible to compete for 1 of 3 travel awards ($750/award). Awardees were selected as follows: abstracts designated for the poster competition were judged and 6 finalists were selected to give short podium presentations at the Symposium. Of these, 3 were selected for travel awards announced at the end of the meeting.

Agenda (Eastern Times): The full agenda is available here. Also available for download is the Poster Abstract book. Links to here the presentations will be available soon.

April 23, 2020

Event was canceled due to the COVID-19 situation

April 29, 2019
8:00am - 4:00pm

D. Dan and Betty Kahn Auditorium and Atrium
A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building

External Advisors:

Karyn Esser, PhD
Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD
Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speaker:

Charlotte A. Peterson, PhD
Joseph Hamburg  Endowed Professor
Director of the Center for Muscle Biology
College of Health Sciences
University of Kentucky
 

Agenda: The full agenda (a pdf file available for download and printing) is available here.

The 3rd Annual Musculoskeletal Health Symposium will be held on Monday, April 29, 2019 in the Biomedical Science Research Building, BSRB; in addition to Dr Peterson's keynote presentation the symposium will feature a poster session highlighting work by junior faculty, trainees, students, fellows, staff, and house officers. Trainees (students, fellows, house officers) are eligible to compete for 1 of 3 travel awards ($750/award). Awardees will be selected as follows: abstracts designated for the poster competition will be judged and 6 finalists selected to give short podium presentations at the Symposium. Of these, 3 will be selected for travel awards to be announced at the end of the meeting.

April 6, 2018
9:00am - 4:00pm

D. Dan and Betty Kahn Auditorium and Atrium
A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building

External Advisors

Karyn Esser, PhD
Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD
Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speaker:

Martha Murray, MD
Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery
Harvard Medical School

Agenda: The full agenda (pdf file) is available here

The 2nd Annual Musculoskeletal Health Symposium was held on Friday, April 6, 2018 in the Biomedical Science Research Building, BSRB. Also featured was a poster session highlighting work by trainees of P30 faculty members (students, fellows, and house officers). This included a competition for 3 travel awards ($750/award) based upon an evaluation of the submitted abstract and presented poster (poster had to be presented by the trainee). Award winners were announced at the end of the meeting.

May 8, 2017
8:00am - 4:00pm

D. Dan and Betty Kahn Auditorium and Atrium
A. Alfred Taubman Biomedical Science Research Building

Planning Committee

Ellen Arruda, PhD, Susan Brooks, PhD
Michelle Caird, MD, Renny Franceschi, PhD
Richard Hughes, PhD, Karl J. Jepsen, PhD
Gurjit Mandair, PhD, Mark Peterson, PhD, MS, FACSM
Natalie Mijal, Sharon Vaassen, Cathy van Poznak, MD

External Advisors

Karyn Esser, PhD
Louis C. Gerstenfeld, PhD
Clifford J. Rosen, MD

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Steven A. Goldstein, Ph.D.

Download the agenda for printing