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The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has awarded the Syme Medal to Dr Ben Dean, a recent DPhil student at NDORMS.

Dr Ben Dean is an orthopaedic surgeon in training and recently completed his thesis under the supervision of Professors Andrew Carr and Kassim Javaid. He is back in full time clinical work, currently in Oxford and aiming to pursue a career in upper limb surgery.

Speaking of his award, Ben said: "I am delighted that my work has been recognised by the award of the Syme medal and I would like to thank the many individuals who helped me along the way, particularly the great team here at the Botnar."

"I have always been fascinated by the mechanisms underlying disease and pain, particularly related to the musculoskeletal system. This led me to pursue my thesis in which I used translational methods to investigate the role of glutamate - a component of proteins - in rotator cuff related shoulder pain. Using well-defined clinical cohorts before and after treatment with varying degrees of symptoms, it was possible to relate tendon change to symptomatology. My work demonstrated the role of glutamate is complex, and is closely related to both the fibrotic and inflammatory pathways which it is ultimately very important to understand better in order to develop more effective treatments for the future."

The Syme Medal is a prestigious mark of excellence awarded by the College to a Fellow or Member of the College in good standing, on the basis of a recently submitted thesis (MD or PhD), or published body of research, or educational development.