Tony Sorial

Royal College of Surgeons Research Award, Washington University in St. Louis - Biomedical Engineering

At 16, Tony was captain of the first European eSports team to compete in the Major League Gaming series in New York. He retired from gaming after 4 years of success and focused on becoming a surgeon. He completed medical training and a Masters degree in Tissue Engineering/Regenerative Medicine at the University of Manchester, and in 2016 he was appointed to a prestigious clinical fellow position in Newcastle. For 4 years he has split his time between the laboratory and hospitals. His research aims to understand the genetics of arthritis, and employ genome editing to translate this knowledge into improving treatments for patients. In 2020 he received grants from the Wellcome Trust and The Royal College of Surgeons of England – Shears to begin his PhD, which bridges his work in Newcastle with Professor Farshid Guilak at Washington University in St Louis. As a Fulbright scholar, he hopes to spend half his PhD working with Pluripotent Stem Cells to produce resilient cartilage, while simultaneously immersing himself in the American experience, with his partner Helen and son Isaac.