In the horse world, lameness is a major problem. On this point, everyone agrees. Whether your focus is elite equine athletes or pleasure horses, whether you are a professional or a recreational rider, whether your primary breed of interest is large or small, musculoskeletal injuries are common and potentially very serious.

Substantial progress has been made over the last several decades in both lameness diagnosis and treatment. Importantly, the future holds as much promise as ever. Science and technology are continuing to drive advances in clinical disciplines.

Cell biology is a good example. With next generation sequencing applied on a genomic scale (inclusive of all DNA or all RNA), it is now possible to broadly compare gene expression between individual tissues and cell types. Data-driven scientific approaches are discovering a large number of genes that nobody realized were important. The results are providing new insights into cellular identity, normal function, and disease mechanisms in areas that have direct relevance to lameness.

New understanding about individual cell types enables diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to be refined. Consider cartilage as an example. Our bodies contain several different cartilaginous tissues—joint (articular) cartilage, non-articular structural cartilage, cartilage that is replaced by bone through a process called endochondral ossification, and others. Although all types of cartilage have features in common, an understanding of the unique cellular characteristics that define articular chondrocytes is clearly an important parameter to consider with joint diseases