NEW ORLEANS – Christopher Evans, PhD, director of the Center for Advanced Orthopaedic Studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Maurice Edmond Mueller Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School, was presented with the 2010 Arthur Steindler Award at this week's annual meeting of the Orthopaedic Research Society in New Orleans.
The prestigious award is made biannually to recognize senior scientists, clinicians and educators who have made significant contributions to the understanding of the musculoskeletal system and musculoskeletal diseases and injuries. Evans is a molecular biologist and leader in the development of gene therapies for the treatment of arthritis and other conditions affecting the skeletal system.
"Arthritis is our nation's most common cause of disability," notes Mark Gebhardt, MD, Chief of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at BIDMC. "Nearly 50 million Americans are dealing with some form of this extremely painful condition, and that number will only grow larger as our population ages. The innovative research being conducted by Chris Evans holds great promise as a new treatment option for managing this widespread disease."
Evans was the principal investigator on the world's first clinical trial of gene therapy for arthritis, and last year published the first clinical evidence demonstrating a clinical response to gene therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. He is in the process of developing a further clinical study in the gene therapy of osteoarthritis and has advanced pre-clinical research programs in bone healing and the repair of damage to cartilage.
The author of more than 300 papers, Evans received his doctorate from Swansea University, Wales, UK, which recently bestowed him with an honorary fellowship. Evans is also the recipient of the Marshall R. Urist Award (for excellence in tissue regeneration) from the Orthopaedic Research Society and is an elected fellow of the Hastings Center, a leading bioethics research institute. Last year, Evans' laboratory received a National Institutes of Health Challenge Grant of more than $980,000 to develop innovative ways to heal broken bones.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a patient care, teaching and research affiliate of Harvard Medical School and consistently ranks in the top four in National Institutes of Health funding among independent hospitals nationwide. BIDMC is a clinical partner of the Joslin Diabetes Center and a research partner of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center. BIDMC is the official hospital of the Boston Red Sox. For more information, visit www.bidmc.org.