Nicola’s Foundation, Onlus was established in 2006, by Dr. Giuliano Cerulli with Monsignor Sergio Pintor as the President of St. Joseph’s Hospital, Arezzo, Italy. The goal of Nicola’s Foundation, Onlus is to promote excellence in orthopedic research, treatment of orthopedic trauma, training of clinicians, and preventive patient education.
To achieve these goals, Dr. Cerulli has invited ASIAM (Dr. Woo) to be a partner to establish research laboratories on Mechanobiology, Tissue Mechanics and Robotics. Two research projects are planned. We will pull together world leaders in musculoskeletal experimentation, functional tissue engineering and clinical medicine to do translational research on the use of porcine small intestine submucosa as biological scaffolds to encourage ligament and tendon regeneration. The goal is to repair the injured ACL and to enhance its healing and long-term knee stability. Just as important, we will integrate the research in engineering, radiology and surgery for the evaluation of those genderspecific etiology of non-contact ACL injury. We want to identify high risk individuals with scientific data and will disseminate our finding to surgeons, athletic trainers and physical therapists so that effective prevention programs can be developed.
Nicola’s Foundation, Onlus, working with St. Joseph’s Hospital, the city of Arezzo and the National Health Service of Italy will open its cutting edge building with all modern facilities in 2008. It will be devoted to excellence and innovation in orthopedic treatment, training, research and prevention of injury.