Congratulations to Dr. Peter Grunert, spine fellow, who was recently awarded the first-place award for best basic science abstract and presentation at the annual meeting of the Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery Society (MINS). Dr. Grunert’s presentation was on the annular repair project he is working on with Dr. Roger Härtl, Chief of Spinal Surgery at the Weill Cornell Brain and Spine Center, and Dr. Larry Bonassar, Associate Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca.
The project team has developed a special collagen gel that is capable of repairing defects in intervertebral discs, thereby preventing herniation and degeneration of these discs after discectomy. The gel is an entirely new formula that uses high-density collagen gel cross-linked with the vitamin riboflavin, and it has already been successfully tested in an animal model. It has the potential to be tested soon in humans, where it could lead to significant improvements in the outcomes of patients undergoing discectomies. Every year there are about 400,000 discectomies performed in the United States alone.
Find out more about the
Biological Spine Tissue Research Lab at Weill Cornell
