Week One: Orren Shachaf

This summer, I am working with Dr. Laura Moore in the Sports Medicine Department at Hospital for Special Surgery, where I will be shadowing her as she interacts with patients in clinic and performs surgeries and be conducting research with her arthrofibrosis-focused group. My introduction to interacting with patients and observing shoulder surgeries this week was quite exciting; despite being nervous about the surgical aspect of the program, I have actually found myself enjoying seeing both arthroscopic and open shoulder surgeries. In particular, this week I observed an arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, an anatomical shoulder repair (as opposed to a reverse shoulder repair, which switches the locations of the ball and socket), and a shoulder fracture repair which began arthroscopically and required a transition to open shoulder. Additionally, I have direction on the research project I will be working on this summer, which will focus on the role of cellular senescence on joint stiffness (particularly, resulting from fibrosis). This project relates very directly to the research I am hoping to pursue within the van der Meulen Lab at Cornell (my home lab), so I am both excited and optimistic about the prospect of this experience directly contributing toward my thesis (and potentially being extended as a collaboration).