The Precision Musculoskeletal theme of Queen Mary's NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) organised an excellent Patient and Family Day. This provided a stimulating forum for discussion and engagement between researchers, clinicians, and patients and families directly effected by musculoskeletal conditions.

Colleagues within Queen Mary's Centre for Predictive in vitro Models are part of the Precision Musculoskeletal theme contributing through the development of organ-chip models for inflammatory musculoskeletal conditions including osteoarthritis, synovitis, and tendinopathy.

At the event Dr Swati Midha ran an excellent interactive stand showcasing some of our organ-chip research and how this will have impact in accelerating the development and clinical use of new therapies.

Our research includes the development of precision medicine approaches where the team, led by Profs Knight and Screen and Dr Hopkins, are already producing precision organ-chip models using individual patients cells to determine which therapies work for a specific patient. Much of this research is in partnership with the pharmaceutic companies developing new medicines, but we also use the organ-chips to understand more about inflammatory conditions and how they are effected by diet, hormones, and pollution etc.

Several of the students at our EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training are working in this exciting field and Dr Midha was able to present work showing the wide range of organ-chip models currently under development at the Centre.