Dr. Nancy E. Lane is a distinguished Professor of Medicine and Rheumatology and inaugural director of the Center for Musculoskeletal Health at U. C. Davis Health, and the University of California School. Of Medicine at Davis, California. Dr. Lane has spent the past 35 years investigating the epidemiology of hip and knee OA, including genetic epidemiology, and has performed a number of novel phase II clinical trials for potential treatments for osteoarthritis of the hip and knee, including the phase II trial of tanezumab for painful knee OA. Dr. Lane’s earliest work determined that older runners, who had not had knee injuries, could safely jog, without damaging their knees leading to one of the first studies of exercise and knee OA. Dr. Lane and her mentor at Stanford also determined that regular exercise prolonged lifespan in older individuals. Dr. Lane received a K23 mid-mentoring award for 12 years from the NIH to mentor junior faculty in musculoskeletal diseases. Dr. Lane initiated the Young Investigators Workshop with the U.S. Bone and Joint Decade to mentor junior faculty across all disciplines of musculoskeletal diseases to obtain grant funding, and after 14 years the program has trained over 500 young investigators and has achieved a 50% funding success rate. Dr. Lane has also had Program Grants from the NIH (P50s) to study both imaging in OA and musculoskeletal diseases across the lifespan. Dr. Lane’s contributions to science and mentoring the next generation of musculoskeletal scientists was recognized with her election to the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow for the American Association of the advancement of Science and to the American Association of physicians.
