EORS 2023 NetwOArk Symposia in Port, Portugal

On September 29th 2023, COST action members, Prof. Sylvia Nürnberger, Prof. Denitsa Docheva, Prof. Feza Korkusuz and Dr. Girish Pattappa organised a NetwOArk symposium that took place during the 31^st Aannual European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS) Meeting in Porto at the Alfandega do Porto. The symposium consisted of three presentations each addressing a working group theme of the action. Prof. Feza Korkusuz described how patients with OA are treated in clinical practice using a patient algorithm dependent upon OA severity, as well as data on patient response to injectable treatments for OA. Dr. Girish Pattappa gave an overview on the current understanding for cellular and molecular endotypes of OA and the technologies used to uncover novel biomarkers, whilst the final talk by Prof. Sylvia Nürnberger summarized different in vitro models for testing novel OA therapeutics that have the potential to speed up clinical translation and reduce the requirement for animal models. In sum, the symposium successfully disseminated information on the NetwOArk COST action as well as provided an excellent synopsis on OA clinical and basic research, whilst also pointed out areas for further research.

The symposium was attended by 35 congress participants and there was a very active question and answer session. The symposia attendees were also encouraged to join in this COST action and participate in future NetwOArk meetings. Due to the success of this session, future EORS-NetwOArk symposia may be conducted in the following years.