GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN – At its 38th Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, the International Society for the Study of the Lumbar Spine (ISSLS) announced its Fellowship award winners for 2011. Phoenix, Arizona based chiropractor and biomechanist, Dr. Chris Colloca was awarded the 2011 MacNab LaRocca Fellowship. The $10,000 prize is awarded by the Society each year to promote and extend research activities into the cause and cure of low back pain. More specifically, the Fellowship is awarded to applicants who have completed formal training in a medical or allied specialty and should be involved in an investigation of a specific problem which would be furthered by travel to a location other than their own. Applicants should be sponsored by, or be a member of the ISSLS.

 

The Fellowship will provide support for Dr. Colloca to travel later this year to Adelaide, Australia to collaborate with Robert J. Moore, PhD to study intervertebral disc regeneration at the Adelaide Centre for Spinal Research in cooperation with the Institute for Medical and Veterinary Science, a division of the governmental authority South Australia Pathology. Dr. Colloca has published a number of scientific papers together with the orthopaedic team from Adelaide studying dynamic spinal stiffness

assessments and biomechanical and neurophysiological responses to spinal manipulation. Dr. Colloca gained membership to ISSLS in 2004, and is one of only a handful of chiropractors whom are members of the prestigious society. Dr. Colloca has attended the ISSLS annual meeting to present his research nearly every year since 1996. Past ISSLS MacNab LaRocca Fellowship winners include spinal research notables such as Malcolm Pope, James Weinstein, Bjorn Rydevik, Manohar Panjabi, Tapio Vedeman, and Greg Kawchuk. Dr. Colloca will present a report of his research during the ISSLS meeting in Amsterdam, The Netherlands in association with Spineweek May 28-June 1, 2012. Colloca will also serve as the Society's local host for its 40th Annual meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2013.

A distinguished scientist, Dr. Colloca has multi-disciplinary research collaborations around the world, his award winning original research has been presented at numerous international scientific conferences resulting in over fifty scientific journal publications. He currently serves as a reviewer for a number scientific journals including the Journal of Biomechanics, Clinical Biomechanics, Spine, and European Spine Journal, and Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, among others.