The Berton Rahn Research Award—the three most recent winners

Every year, the best AO Foundation-funded research is honored with the Berton Rahn Research Award. The most recent award winners are Prof Dr Stephen Ferguson, Prof Dr Jos Malda, and Prof Dr Ling Qin.

Initially known as the AO Research Fund Prize, the Berton Rahn Research Award was renamed in 2009 to recognize the numerous contributions made to the AO Foundation by Prof Dr med Dr med dent Berton Rahn. Prof Rahn, whose histological work on bone remodeling is world-renowned, joined the AO Research Institute Davos (ARI) in 1968 and became its vice-director in 1975. He passed away in March 2008.

In 2022, Prof Dr Stephen Ferguson won the Berton Rahn Research Award. Prof Ferguson, professor of biomechanics at ETH Zurich, has collaborated for almost three decades with the AO Research Institute Davos (ARI), where he completed a research internship in 1994 and a PhD in hip joint and soft tissue biomechanics from 1996 to 2000.

In his work, Prof Ferguson focuses on the biomechanics of age-related diseases of the musculoskeletal system. With his research group, he develops new treatment methods based on novel biomaterials and fabrication methods for conditions related to increased bone fragility and disc degeneration.

One example is ANNUMECH, for which Prof Ferguson received this year's Berton Rahn Research Award. The project yielded a new method for fabricating fibrous membranes that can be used to repair lesions of the annulus fibrosus—the hard circular exterior that encases the soft inner core of intervertebral discs. The team successfully modified the already established biofabrication method of electrospinning, which employs electrostatic forces to create fine fibers.

"However, conventional electrospinning produces fibers in random orientation with tight spacing, which hampers cell and tissue growth," explains Prof Ferguson. "We were able to improve the process to achieve both specific fiber orientation and sufficient inter-fiber spacing."

The team also succeeded in furnishing the membranes' sides with differing characteristics—while one enhances cell and tissue adhesion, the other prevents it. The latter is particularly important in treatments deployed in close proximity to the sensitive neural structures of the spine.