Dr Irene Yang

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Innovation Project

Irene is an academic research fellow based at the Edinburgh Orthopaedic Engineering Collaboration (EOEC) and recipient of the Innovation Fellowship. Jointly appointed in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine and the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, Irene’s interdisciplinary research work focuses on utilising engineering techniques and approaches to improve musculoskeletal care.

As an Innovation Fellow, Irene’s research work will focus on fractures. Fractures, more commonly known as “bone breakages”, are common and a major cause of disability and death worldwide: in 2013, an estimated 21.7 million people suffered from a fracture that warranted medical care. The impact of fractures, including complex fractures or fractures that fail to heal, is significant for the patient and the healthcare system: they are often difficult to treat both surgically and biologically, and for some fractures, surgical options such as fixation techniques are often associated with persistent poor clinical outcomes, resulting ultimately in significant financial burden. In low-resource regions, the greater risk of infections poses even larger challenges for fracture treatment and care. Irene’s work would have wide applicability in both high- and low-middle-income countries.

Irene’s highly interdisciplinary research has been published in top peer-reviewed journals and has won her numerous awards including the Sydney Medical School Research Scholarship, the EIT Health PhD Translational Research Fellowship, the Oxford Medical Science Division research slam, the IMechE Healthcare Technologies Awards, the UK Doctoral Research Awards and most recently, the British Orthopaedic Research Society/Bone and Joint Research Travelling Fellowship. Having trained technically at top institutions worldwide, Irene is equipped with a strong range of skills, both technical and interpersonal, that enables her to contribute considerable benefit to orthopaedic communities worldwide.

Interview Transcript

Emily Lekkas: Hello, I’m Emily Lekkas and I am part of Edinburgh Innovations. And I’m joined by Irene Yang, who is one of our first Innovation Fellows here at Edinburgh Innovations. So, welcome, Irene.

Irene Yang: Thank you so much, Emily. I’m really happy to be a part of the first cohort of Innovation Fellows at [the University of Edinburgh].

Emily: So, can we understand a little bit about what’s got you here today? Because I think you’ve got a really interesting career so far in your research and so forth. So please do provide a bit more info.

Irene: Yeah, I’m South African and I moved abroad at a fairly young age. So, I’ve been very blessed to have worked with various world-leading orthopaedic researchers and engineers around the world, conducting translational research.

So, after graduating engineering and medical science, I took up a post as a research assistant at Westmead Children’s Hospital in Australia. And I worked with Professor David Little and his team to develop novel orthopaedic devices for children. One of the projects that I was working on [was] the PediFrag Wrist Fusion system, which is actually currently sold by OrthoPediatrics, a company based in the US. And from that experience, I then took some time out in industry and I worked as a product developer, just to learn how medical devices are developed, designed and then sold.

And then I got an offer to go to Oxford University to complete my PhD. I had a Clarendon scholarship and it was there that I worked with Professor David Murray and Professor Stephen Mellon on redesigning the Oxford compartmental knee replacement implant. And I’m still continuing my work with them now to try and realise some of those creations.

Then I got the opportunity to move to Edinburgh, where I’m currently based. And I am now, or was most recently, in Professor Hamish Simpson’s lab at the Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma working on cutting tools for orthopaedic surgery. So, I would say yes, like I’ve had a bit of an unconventional journey to reach where I am. But I think it’s also been a very exciting process to get to where I am now.

Emily: And I think the other part of your career that’s been really interesting, is that you took a bit of time out of academia in order to work in industry.

Irene: Absolutely. You know, in some ways, I was very intentional with my career so far. The bit that I was, [on] some level, very lucky about was meeting my first boss. He was an exceptional mentor and still remains a very good friend of mine. And when I was working with him, I felt, you know, that I was learning a lot. But there was also a lot that I was not sure about. And that was a lot to do with the impact side of the work. So how do I create technology in a research setting that does actually translate to health care? It was a bit unconventional. I think lots of people were going for PhDs. But at the time, I felt for me to make an informed decision about a PhD, I wanted first to understand what exactly I was trying to achieve and what would I want to try and get out of a PhD. So, yeah, that drove my kind of transition out of academia. But I was always drawn back to academia. So I did apply eventually for a PhD and I was really happy about that.

Emily: And so I think that leads really nicely into what drew you into the Innovation Fellows program. What really interested you about that?

Irene: Absolutely, yes. I was at the time a postdoc and I was looking for ways to advance my academic career through a fellowship. And I had spoken with an academic mentor of mine […] one of my PhD supervisors, and he was advising me at the time to focus on translational fellowships or fellowships that were focused on translational research, which hadn’t occurred to me, despite all of the kind of research I was doing at the time. So, I looked at the Innovation Fellows programme and, you know, the brief. And I just thought this is perfect for my career goals, my career background. Everything that was listed was pretty much me on paper in some senses. So, I felt very fortunate. It came through as an email. I immediately started investigating it. It was clear that it was a new process that was being developed at [the University of Edinburgh]. So, yeah, one thing led to another. And here I am today.

Emily: You’re one of our first people. That’s really exciting. So, tell us a little bit more. Tell me a little bit more about what it is that you’re doing with your Innovation Fellowship.

Irene: You know, I currently work with a lot of orthopaedic surgeons and researchers at the hospital – Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. And it was very clear to me that engineering techniques could be applied to facilitate some of the work that they were trying to do...The technology that I’m working on is basically trying to facilitate clinicians to diagnose fractures better so that effectively we reduce patient suffering and improve patient outcomes.

Emily: What has EI helped you with so far and what do you expect there to be help in future as well?

Irene: Even at this point, I feel like I’ve already been supported by Edinburgh Innovations. They’ve really been great at advising about the impact pathways, trying to understand outside of just the creation of the technology, what, where could this go, what impact could it have. But in addition to that as well, I’ve also received a lot of advice about funding, not just within Edinburgh Innovations, but [the] University of Edinburgh as well. And then more broadly, Scotland and UK and then wider on a global aspect.

Emily: And I think that’s really important that as you develop your ideas and your technology and hopefully innovate to a point where you could see it implemented into the clinic, that we’re there supporting you on that journey and helping you. Whether it’s, you know, you decide that actually it might be a big medical device company that you might want to partner with to really take your transition, your technology, and take that further. You know, that’s the sort of support that we can help you with. Or if you want to start your own business and you want to be CEO and really think about that as your career path, then we’re there to also help you think about what happens if you want to spin this out.

Irene: Yeah, I definitely think that I was hesitant in some senses because, you know […] like I was trying to go for an academic career and it was, you know, at first it was a little bit like I wasn’t sure if Edinburgh Innovations was the right place for me to go because it seemed like it was very commercial focused. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I just didn’t really understand how that would help an academic career. But I’ve actually come to find that it is pivotal to the success of an academic career because, you know, whether you stay in academia or if you go to industry, if you want impact, it’s the same outcome.

So, I’ve had such a positive interaction with Edinburgh Innovations because I think, yes, there’s this, you know, this idea that, you know, you have to start a company. And I wasn’t against starting a company, but […] I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do. And so, to kind of free up the intellectual freedom for me to think, you know, I could stay in academia, but I could also spin this out or, you know, it’s just let’s see where this goes, you know. So having that option open up for me has been so liberating, I would say.

Emily: Thank you, Irene. That was a fascinating insight into your journey as an Innovation Fellow. And it’s been really interesting to hear about your career so far and what your ambitions are with this fellowship.

Irene: Thank you so much, Emily, for taking the time to interview me today and for giving me the opportunity to share my story. And if I can, I would definitely encourage anyone who is interested in, you know, moving forward their translational research to apply for the Innovation Fellowship, because I think it’s a fantastic opportunity to engage with Edinburgh Innovations and move your career forward, whatever that goal might be.

Research Experience

• Postdoctoral Research Fellow – University of Edinburgh, Scotland
• Product Developer – IDE Group, Australia
• Research Assistant – Westmead Children’s Hospital, Australia
• DPhil Musculoskeletal – University of Oxford, United Kingdom
• B. Mechanical Engineering (Hons) – University of Sydney, Australia
• B. Medical Sciences – University of Sydney, Australia
• Gauteng Dept Education Matric Cert – Crawford College, South Africa