Title : “Discovering the frontiers of musculoskeletal sciences: The quest for advancing Orthopaedic research in Malaysia”
Date : 3rd September 2014 (Wednesday)
Time : 3.00 p.m.
Venue : Auditorium T.J.Danaraj, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya
Synopsis:
Orthopaedic surgery is a long-established respected branch of the surgical discipline whose origin can be traced back to the time of the ancient Egypt and Greek civilizations. Although the practice of orthopaedics has evolved over the centuries, the governing principles of treatment have remained fundamentally unchanged. It is a conventional notion that the success of treatment of musculoskeletal diseases is largely dependent on the patient’s own intrinsic healing ability. In cases where tissue damage is extensive and thus irreplaceable, the natural repair processes may not have been forthcoming, and in such instances, artificial prostheses are applied.
However, the use of these mechanical devices has been associated with a number of limitations such as early implant failures and other complications, which include metallosis, reactive inflammation and acute toxicity. It is only in recent years that a new therapeutic approach has been explored, offering a potentially better treatment alternative. Rather than using synthetic materials, the use of cells and biological factors or materials has been suggested to be a plausible method for regenerating damaged tissue. This concept, referred to as “tissue engineering and regenerative medicine”, has gained much interest amongst the clinicians and scientific communities.
Despite a vast advancement of research in this area, knowledge in this field is still at its infancy, and much more efforts are needed to unravel the mysteries within this complex area of research. Nevertheless, this technology currently appears to be at the frontier of modern orthopaedics, and the race is on to unlock the immense potential it has to offer. Is Malaysia rising up to the challenge to contribute to high impact scientific discoveries in the field to tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, comparable to that of other developed nations? In this lecture, Prof. Tunku Kamarul will elaborate on how tissue engineering and regenerative medicine was first instituted in University of Malaya almost a decade ago, and how this has progressed to great heights, leading to several outstanding achievements such as the birth of The National Orthopaedic Centre of Excellence for Research and Learning (NOCERAL).
