-----
Title:
-----

CLINICAL BIOMECHANICS OF THE SPINE: COMPUTATIONAL MECHANICS CHALLENGES

-----------
Organizers:
-----------

Jenni M. Buckley
University of California, San Francisco
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Orthopaedic Bioengineering Laboratory
513 Parnassus Ave., HSE 641, San Francisco, CA 94143
415.476.3114 (office), 415.719.9200 (pager)
415.476.0960 (lab), 415.476.1128 (fax)
URL: www.me.berkeley.edu/~jbuckley

-------------------------
Minisymposium description:
------------------------- 

In this mini-symposium, we will bring together practicing clinicians, prominent biomechanical 
experimentalists, and representatives from the orthopaedic device industry to discuss current 
challenges in the development and assessment of new technologies for treating back pain. Each 
speaker will discuss research advancements and present current open-ended questions in high-impact 
sub-fields of spinal biomechanics, e.g., motion-preserving implants and material property 
characterization of vertebral bone. The goal of this mini-symposium is to foster collaboration 
between researchers with computational mechanics backgrounds and those with experimental 
biomechanics expertise in order to more efficiently and accurately solve clinical problems in 
treating back pain.