Latest News

January 2010

FRCF launches its new website.

The 1st call for research proposals is announced for the next financial year. The deadline to submit the Expression of Interests (EoI) is 1st April 2010. Only PhD and MD research proposals will be considered for this call.

FRCF will be one of the sponsors at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the British Orthopaedic Research Society (BORS) in Cardiff, 12th -13th July.

August 2009

We are delighted to announce that Dominic Southgate successfully defended his PhD thesis. The project was supervised by Dr Anthony Bull at Imperial College, entitled:
Preclinical testing and design of shoulder prosthesis
FRCF would like to thank Dr Southgate for his good work during his PhD and wishes him every success in the future.

June 2009

Another Success
It is with great pleasure to announce Dr Xiang Li from UCL has successfully completed his PhD project, which was supported by FRCF, under the supervision of Professor Mohan Edirisinghe, entitled:
Electrohydrodynamic deposition and patterning of nano-hydroxyapatite for biomedical applications
FRCF wishes Li best of luck in the future - well done!

May 2009

Mission Accomplished
It is with great pleasure to announce DR Patrick Marti has successfully completed his PhD project, which was supported by FRCF at Cambridge University, under the supervision of Dr Serena Best, entitled:
Zinc-Containing Hydroxyapatite Coatings for Orthopaedic Applications
Patrick was one of our first PhD student who showed commitment and hard work throughout. We would like to wish Patrick every success in the future and thank him for his dedication to this research project.

April 2009

FRCF New Location
The FRCF office will be moving to a new location next month.
The new address will be:
The contact details (tel, e-mail) will remain unchanged. This will take effect from 7th May 2009.

UCL Publications
Manuscripts entitled:
A novel jet-based nano-bioceramic patterning technique for osteoblast guidance X.Li, G.Koller, J.Huang, L.Di Silvio, T.Renton, M.Esat, W.Bonfield and M.Edirisinghe, J.Royal Soc. Interface, accepted & in press;
and,
Effect of heat treatment of nano-hydroxyapatite coatings prepared using electrohydrodynamic deposition X.Li, J.Huang, M.Edirisinghe, G.Koller, L.Di Silvio, T.Renton, M.Esat and W.Bonfield, Int. J. Nano and Biomaterials, accepted & in press,
have been accepted for publication.

Furlong Research Charitable Foundation (FRCF) files its first patent application
The FRCF collaboration with University College London (UCL) has filed its first ever patent application. The inventors are Dr Minoo Esat (FRCF) and a research team in the department of Mechanical Engineering at UCL, whose members are Dr Xiang Li (Researcher), Dr Jie Huang (Lecturer), Professor Mohan Edirisinghe (Chair of Biomaterials) and Professor William Bonfield (Emeritus Professor of Biomaterials, FRS).

This British patent application has invented a new method of surface coating which has led to an interlocked bioactive coating on a metallic or other substrate, useful in orthopaedic engineering. The research leading to the patent application has its origin in an EPSRC supported generic research, carried out by UCL on generating nanotopographies on substrates by Electrohydrodynamic methods and has been further developed using a research grant from the FRCF, in order to innovate a unique template-assisted coating technology. The work was part of the doctoral research carried out by Xiang Li, an overseas student from China, who worked with Professor Edirisinghe and Dr Huang, gaining his PhD in March 2009.

March 2009

It gives us great pleasure to announce that Sofie Rebeling has successfully passed her PhD viva on the 24th of March. The examiners complimented the quality of the thesis and also her defence. Sofie started her PhD at King's College in 2005. The title of her project was: 'Hydroxyapatite as a scaffold carrying BMPs for enhanced osseoinductivity'.

Being one of the very first students supported by the Foundation, Sofie said:
"I would like to thank you and the Furlong Research Charitable Foundation for the fellowship, enabling me to study in depth the field of bone regeneration and carrying out research at the forefront of Biomaterials, which has been really exciting. I have thoroughly enjoyed my PhD and learnt invaluable skills and so I'm grateful for having had this opportunity."

February 2009

The 2nd Furlong Cambridge Basic Science FRCS (Orth) Revision Course 2009 is now fully booked. New dates for the next basic science course will be announced soon.

November 2008

The Furlong Foundation will fund Xavier Griffin's two year PhD project 'The Role of Platelet Rich Plasma in Accelerating the Healing of Intracapsular Fractures of the Proximal Femur'. This study will investigate better ways to treat people with hip fractures, reducing the complications and long term disabilities associated with their injury.

Xavier Griffin was the first Walport Academic Clinical Fellow to be appointed in Orthopaedic Surgery in the UK as part of the Integrated Academic Training Programme run by the National Institute of Health Research. The programme is intended to develop clinical academics (the UK's future researchers and Professors) by encouraging high level academic training in parallel with clinical training. Through the Furlong Foundation grant Mr Griffin will be able to complete a PhD at Warwick Medical School at the same time as training to be a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon.

Professor Damian Griffin, the Chair of Trauma & Orthopaedics at the University of Warwick said: "I am really pleased that Xavier has been successful in this competitive grant award from the Furlong Foundation . His research will help to improve the treatment of tens of thousands of people who break their hips each year, but it will also train him to do clinical research in the future."