SAN FRANCISCO (July 25, 2021) – Michael Davies, MD, a fourth year resident in the UCSF Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, and Research Resident in the Feeley-Liu Lab, was awarded the 2021 Excellence in Research Award from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) on July 7, 2021, for the paper, "Muscle-Derived Beige Adipose Precursors Secrete Promyogenic Exosomes that Treat Rotator Cuff Muscle Degeneration in Mice and are Identified in Humans by Single-Cell RNA Sequencing." 

"In this study, we evaluated the regenerative potential of secreted exosomes by a subpopulation of mesenchymal stem cells present in muscle. We began by identifying a pro-myogenic subpopulation of stem cells in murine muscle marked by high UCP1 gene expression, collected the secreted exosomes from these cells, and assessed their effects in vitro and in vivo on myogenesis in a mouse rotator cuff tear model. We then used single-cell RNA-sequencing to help define an analogous population of stem cells present in human rotator cuff muscle," said Dr. Davies.