Under the direction of equine surgeon Liz Collar, the Collar LACS Orthopedic Lab at CVM focuses on equine and translational musculoskeletal diseases and treatments. Her lab group recently gave eleven presentations 2 conferences, the Orthopedic Research Society (ORS) annual meeting in Long Beach, California and the Veterinary Orthopedic Society (VOS) conference in Lake Tahoe, California.

Dr. Xan Carlson (CEM PhD candidate) had 3 posters at ORS and 3 presentations at VOS. Layla Gray (MS candidate) with 2 VOS presentations, and Chessa Brown (veterinary student) with a presentation. Chessa won a Gretchen Flo Student/Intern Award for her presentation “Clinical Effect of Multidose Oral Administration of Firocoxib and t-TUCB Alone and in Combination for the Treatment of Naturally Occurring Osteoarthritis in Horses” which investigated the novel soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitor (TUCB) in horses with naturally occurring osteoarthritis. She also presented this at the CVM Research Day and won first place in the veterinary student category. This work is also part of Dr. Xan Carlson’s PhD work. 

The research presented in the 11 presentations advances: the understanding of the effects of allogeneic stem cells on cartilage and bone when injected into joints, the understanding of the effects of a novel drug (a soluble epoxide hydrolase inhibitor) on both stem cells in culture and in horses with naturally occurring osteoarthritis (improved stem cell viability and had good analgesic effects in horses while being a safer option than many current drugs on the market), the development of a new animal model to study subchondral bone disease, and the general knowledge of fixation of femur fractures in horses through the presentation of a case that I successfully fixed a femur fracture on utilizing a plate that was released to the veterinary market in the last year.