The Temple of the Jeronimos Monastery hosted the honorary doctorate ceremony of Dr Stephen P. Abelow, director of the Clinic of Sport Traumatology of Lake Tahoe (Nevada, USA). Before giving his doctorate acceptance speech, Stephen Abelow confirmed that “Spain is not aware of its standing as one of the most developed countries in terms of treating cartilage injuries in athletes”, and he confirmed that current research centres on regeneration of cell tissues.

Dr Pedro Guillen, Chairman of the Chair of Sporting Traumatology and Honorary Dean of the Medicine Department at UCAM, read the laudatio where he highlighted the importance of the figure of the new Doctor, as “one of the most brilliant orthopedic surgeons in the US, in this field”. In addition, he stated that “this title serves as a compliment for all the good he has done, and recognizes an active life filled with achievements for the whole society. He also highlighted the fact that UCAM is placing a strong bet on incorporating into the teaching faculty professionals from the field of health, and reminded teh audience that other researchers and doctors associated to UCAM have had their works published in important scientific journals such as Nature or Sciencie.

Doctor Stephen P. Abelow is an expert on the cartilage, which is a tissue with a limited capacity of recovery.. However he has pointed out that thanks to developments in medicine these type of injuries are becoming easier to treat. About the leaps made in this field he affirmed that  “as medics and scientists we need to find a way for this damaged cartilage to recover”, with the final goal being to achieve this through implanting cells from the cartilage itself (condrocitos autólogos) in order to restore the articular surface, improve the symptoms and functionality, and prevent or at least delay the progress of the injury, particularly in the terminal stage of arthritis.

He also applauded UCAM for its focus on research, and for the fact that despite being a relatively young university "its teaching faculty have already featured in journals and magazines of international importance in the field of medicine and scientific research". 

To see the Laudatio of Professor Dr Pedro Guillen Garca in the investiture of Dr Stephen Abelow as Doctor Honoris Causa, pleae follow this link.

For the full speech imparted by Dr Stepgen Abelow please see this link. Here he talks of cartilage regeneration from ACI to MACI to ICC to IPC, including treatment modalities for cartilage, autologous chondocryte implantation, and how to potentite the capacity of the cultured chondrocytes.