For the 2nd consecutive year, Ganga Hospital Spine Research Team wins the prestigious North American Spine Society Research Award. This is the first time that this award has gone to any institution in India or South Asia consecutively for two years.
Coimbatore: For the 2nd consecutive year, Ganga Hospital Spine Research Team wins the prestigious North American Spine Society Research Award. This is the first time that this award has gone to any institution in India or South Asia consecutively for two years.
The Spine research team of Ganga Hospital, headed by Prof. Dr. S.Rajasekaran who have been performing pioneering research in the field of spine surgery have for the second consecutive years won the prestigious North American Spine Society Research Award.
Adding more feather to their cap, the Ganga Spine reserach team are the recipients of several revnowned national and international awards in the past. Now, they have reached a new milestone by winning the North American Spine Society Outstanding Research award for the second time, consecutively this year.
The highlight of the study was to compare the molecular level activity in fetus with young and old adults and to identify proteins and molecules which can act as biomarkers for early degeneration.
North American Spine Society Outstanding Research Award
One of the most prestigious and valued award in spine surgery is the award given jointly by the North American Spine Society (NASS) and the internationally renowned 'The Spine Journal' (TSJ) which has one of the highest impact factor for spine speciality international journals. This award is fiercely competed by researchers from all over the world and the award winning paper is published as a lead article in the journal and also invited to be presented in the Annual Meeting of the North American Spine Society conducted in USA. The award carries a cash prize of USD 10,000.
2020 Award
This year, the team has been awarded the North American Spine Society Outstanding Research award for the second time consecutively for the research on "Uncovering Molecular Targets for Regenerative Therapy in Degenerative Disc Disease: Do Small Leucine-Rich Proteoglycans hold the Key?”. The research is a combination of clinical, basic science, radiological and molecular level research on probing the cause for lumbar disc degeneration and low back pain.
This work has huge importance in trying to prevent and also reverse disc degeneration. The highlight of the study was to compare the molecular level activity in fetus with young and old adults and to identify proteins and molecules which can act as biomarkers for early degeneration.
Significance of the research
Low back pain significantly reduces the quality of life of nearly 70% of the patients worldwide causing a considerable economic and social impact. Degenerative disc disease is the commonest cause of low back pain. Irrespective of the etiology, the terminal inflammation causes disintegration of the extra cellular matrix resulting in altered spinal biomechanics and chronic low back pain. While the previous five decades have mainly concentrated on surgical intervention with advanced instruments, research in regenerative medicine to solve the problem has been limited and mainly restricted to animal studies. The team attempted to identify molecular targets for biological repair of discs which could be probed for regenerative interventions in future. While, the use of stem cells is not specific to the cellular phenotype of human intervertebral discs, our current research of comparing human fetal discs which has huge regenerative potential has led to significant clues on molecular targets such as native small leucine rich proteoglycans which could be manipulated by either gene therapy or tissue regeneration is a breakthrough finding which has never been done so far.
We found Biglycan to be significantly upregulated in fetal discs and also noted down regulation of Lumican Decorin, Prolargin and Chondroadherin in the disc degeneration group. These molecular targets have huge potential for biological implications in disc degeneration and regeneration.
2019 Award
In 2019, the Ganga research team from India bagged the award for their research work entitled “Inflammaging Determines Health and Disease in Lumbar discs - Evidence from Differing Proteomic Signatures of Healthy, Aging and Degenerating Discs” which analysed at a molecular level the cause for disc degeneration which is the major reason for low back pain. The research looked at the causative factors of disc disease at cellular level and also the possibility of sub-clinical infection as a potential cause for low back pain. This was published in The Spine Journal, USA and the paper was also presented in the Annual Meeting in Chicago, 2019.
Ganga Research Centre
Ganga Research Centre was established by Ganga Orthopaedic Research & Education Foundation which is a recognized research centre of the Department of Science & Technology, India. It has a very successful model for having both clinical (surgeons and radiologists) and basic science researchers (specialists in proteomics, genetics, biotechnology and bioinformatics). For the last many years, the research team has been performing cutting-edge clinical and basic science research in the field of low back pain and spinal cord injuries. Their research has been recognized world wide by numerous awards such as the prestigious ISSLS Awards four times in the years 2004, 2010, 2013 and 2017. Euro Spine Worldwide Open Research Award in 2008, Asia Pacific Spine Society Awards and BritSpine Award. The team has more than 200 international research publications in highly acclaimed peer reviewed journals.
The unique, multidisciplinary team consists of spine surgeons -Dr S Rajasekaran, Dr Dilipchand Raja, Dr Vijay Anand, Dr Ajoy Prasad Shetty, Dr Rishi Mugesh Kanna, radiologist Dr Pushpa, Basic Science Specialists, Dr Raveendran Muthurajan, Dr Chitra Tangavel, Mrs Sharon Nayagam, Mrs Sunmathi and Mrs Steffi.
Prestigious positions held by Prof S Rajasekaran, Ph.D.
- Chairman, Dept of Orthopaedic & Spine Surgery, Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore
- Chair, AOSpine International Board
- Past President, SICOT
- Past Chair, AOSpine International Research Commission
- Past President, CSRS AP
- Adjunct Professor, Tamilnadu Dr MGR Medical University.
- Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons of England,2011-12
- Past President, Indian Orthopaedic Association
- Past President, Association of Spine Surgeons of India
- Past President, ISSLS, Canada