“ACL During Growth and Development: Basic Science and Implications for Prevention and Treatment of Injuries”
Dr. Matt Fisher, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill
After receiving a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University, Dr. Fisher completed his PhD degree under the mentorship of Dr. Savio L-Y. Woo at the University of Pittsburgh. His dissertation research focused on the use of extracellular matrix bioscaffolds for anterior cruciate ligament healing as well as the use of robotic testing systems for biomechanical evaluation. He then moved to the University of Pennsylvania as a post-doctoral fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Mauck.
At Penn, his work focused on tissue engineering of the knee meniscus and articular cartilage, with a focus on implementation in large animal models. Since 2014, he has directed the Translational Orthopaedic Research Laboratory.
Through a team science approach, Dr. Fisher and colleagues have 1) advanced the understanding of anterior cruciate ligament function during growth, 2) designed scaffold fabrication approaches for fibrous tissue engineering, and 3) developed translational animal models to study biomechanics of healing and engineered tissues. Dr. Fisher has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 100 conference abstracts. His team’s research has been supported by the NIH, NSF, and several research foundations.
He is the recipient of the 2012 Junior Investigator Award from the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation, the 2020 Rising Star Award from the BMES Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering Special Interest Group, and the 2020 Y.C. Fung Early Career Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
“Pediatric ACL Injury: How Research is Advancing Treatment and Prevention”
Dr. Theodore J. Ganley, MD
Bisignano Family Distinguished Endowed Chair of Sports Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Theodore J. Ganley, MD, is Director of the Sports Medicine and Performance Center and an Attending Orthopaedic Surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). He is also an Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Since 1997, Dr. Ganley has treated children, adolescents and young adults who are high-level performance athletes at CHOP. He is one of a small group of surgeons in the country with a primary focus on sports and trauma in the young athlete. Dr. Ganley earned his medical degree from Hahnemann/Drexel University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA.
He completed an internship at Orlando Regional Medical Center, Orlando, FL, his residency at Hamot Medical Center/Shriner’s Hospital for Children, Erie, PA, and two specialized fellowships: a pediatric orthopaedic fellowship at CHOP, and a sports medicine fellowship — caring for children and adults — at Graduate Hospital, in affiliation with The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. Because of Dr. Ganley’s specialized training and skills to optimize treatment outcomes for younger elite athletes, he was one of the driving forces behind creating CHOP’s Sports Medicine and Performance Center.
Dr. Ganley has specific expertise in the arthroscopic treatment of knee, shoulder and elbow injuries. He developed — and was the first in the nation to perform — a new technique of reconstructing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in patients who are still growing that does not disrupt the growth plates. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Ganley is also an active researcher. His research interests are focused on the optimal treatment of sports injuries in elite adolescent and pediatric athletes. He has published extensively on pediatric ligament and cartilage conditions in children. Dr. Ganley is co-founder of the Research in Osteochondritis Dissecans of the Knee (ROCK) group, a multicenter / multinational group dedicated to developing superior treatment strategies for cartilage lesions.
He helped form the Pediatric Research in Sports Medicine (PRISM) Group and is in the presidential line of that organization. He is also a member of the Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) group and has studied and published on systematic reviews and meta-analysis of pediatric ACL injuries and associated tibial spine fractures.
“Short-term gain, long-term pain? Joint health after ACL injury”
Dr. Laura C. Schmitt, PT, MPT, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Ohio State University
Dr. Schmitt is an Associate Professor of Physical Therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Ohio State University. Dr. Schmitt’s research focuses on understanding neuromuscular control of the knee as related to optimizing rehabilitation outcomes in children, adolescents and young adults following knee injury or pathology, minimizing disability after knee injury or pathology, and understanding the development and progression or joint degeneration following knee injury or pathology. She has over 60 publications in the area of clinical and biomechanical outcomes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction and osteoarthritis.
Her research is/has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy, and the NFL Charities Medical Research Grants. Dr. Schmitt is the President of the Academy of Physical Therapy Research (American Physical Therapy Association), serves as a member of the research committee of the American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy, and is the Chair of the Scientific Review Committee of the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research.