Tim Holsgrove is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Exeter. His research integrates in-vivo, in-vitro, and in-silico approaches to address complex clinical and biological challenges. A key area of expertise is in the development of advanced test platforms to replicate the complex loading that the spine is subjected to during activities of daily living. These platforms are then used to explore spine biomechanics, mechanisms of injury and degeneration, and how mechanical loading influences cellular behaviour using whole-organ intervertebral disc cultures.

I am a veterinary orthopaedic surgeon with specialist interest in cat bone and joint disease. I operate on cats with fractures and joint conditions such as cranial cruciate ligament rupture, patella luxation and hip dysplasia, and I teach undergraduate and postgraduate veterinary surgeons and nurses on all orthopaedic topics. My clinical research is focused on a condition that I recognised called PADS (patella fracture and dental anomaly syndrome), where cats have persistent deciduous teeth and brittle bone resulting in pathological fractures of specific bones.

Zoe is a Lecturer in Veterinary Sciences at Harper & Keele Veterinary School and leads the Companion Animal Health Sciences Research Group at Harper Adams University. In addition to leading the first year Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology module in her teaching, Zoe's research centres on locomotor biomechanics and functional anatomy in canines and equines, with an emphasis on understanding the factors influencing performance and musculoskeletal health. Her work has included gait analysis across multiple species and research into the biomechanics of tripedal locomotion in canine amputees. Zoe graduated from the University of Bristol's School of Anatomy with a degree in Equine Science before undertaking a PhD at the Royal Veterinary College's Structure & Motion Laboratory. Her doctoral research examined the biomechanical factors limiting athletic performance in racehorses. Zoe is also a qualified veterinary physiotherapist and has further interests in the efficacy of physiotherapeutic interventions in veterinary patients.

Professor John Morris is Professor of Human Anatomy at the University of Oxford. He is an endocrinologist whose work has centred on structure-function relations in neuroendocrine systems. He has made a series of important discoveries about the mechanisms of release of peptide hormones from cells of the pituitary gland. His early work showed that the prevalent idea of molecular dispersion as a mechanism of peptide release was wrong, and that released by exocytosis. His recent work has centred on elucidating the mechanisms whereby steroid hormones induce the rapid release of peptide hormones from magnocellular dendrites.

Chrissy Hammond spends an unreasonable amount of time persuading zebrafish to answer questions about how skeletons work. Her lab at the University of Bristol uses genetics, live imaging and an unhealthy enthusiasm for watching cells do unexpected things to explore how bones, joints and connective tissues develop, regenerate and age. Somewhere along the way she accidentally acquired interests spanning developmental biology, anatomy, immunology, biomechanics and ageing, and has shown remarkably little inclination to specialise ever since. She is particularly fond of experiments that begin with someone saying, “That's odd...”, because they usually turn out to be the interesting ones. When not trying to work out why a fracture heals (or doesn't), she can usually be found persuading audiences that fish are far more useful than they have any right to be. She apologises in advance for the inevitable fish videos.

Charlotte Miller is an Associate Professor in Comparative Anatomy at the University of Bristol. Her research background is in biomechanics through an evolutionary lens of functional morphology, having trained at Bristol, the Royal Veterinary College and Duke University. Charlotte's research programme centres on animal-substrate interactions across Mammalia. She explores foot-substrate contact, how centre of mass movements impact ground contact, and what body shape and anatomy can (and can't!) help us to predict.

I am a Senior Lecturer and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Bristol in the Palaeobiology group at the School of Earth Sciences. Previously, I was a Presidential Fellow in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Manchester, in the Ancient Life Group. My lab studies locomotor evolution in the mammalian skeleton and examine the impacts of adaptation and constraint during major ecological transitions e.g., origins of mammals, land-to-water, evolution of novel locomotor modes. We combine techniques from comparative anatomy and dissection, to morphometrics, biomechanics, and evolutionary modelling to understand the factors impacting morphological evolution and phenotypic diversity through time. The lab has a special focus on the axial skeleton, a critical but understudied component of the mammalian skeleton.