Kristin has been awarded a Biomedicines Travel Award by the open-access journal Biomedicines (MDPI). The award will support her presentation, “Bridging Endocrinology and Orthopaedics: An Animal-Free Organ-on-Chip Model for Menopausal Osteoarthritis,” at the 34th Annual Meeting of the European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS2026), in Madrid.
Osteoarthritis disproportionately affects postmenopausal women, yet many existing animal and clinical models fail to capture the human-specific, gradual hormonal changes that shape disease progression. To address this gap, Kristin is developing a human, animal-free organ-on-chip platform that integrates synovium and cartilage tissues.
This approach enables the study of menopause-associated OA mechanisms and the testing of hormone-sensitive therapeutic candidates in a physiologically relevant 3D system.
We look forward to seeing this work presented at EORS2026 and to its contribution to more personalised, sex-specific approaches for osteoarthritis treatment!