The field of musculoskeletal (MSK) biology and bioengineering is by its very nature interdisciplinary, typified by the unique collaborations amongst biologists, engineers, and clinician scientists. While this integrative approach has been quite fruitful in the advancement of MSK science, too often our focus tends to be "tissue-specific", with quite a lot of excellent work occurring in non-interacting tissue silos. This occurs despite the fact that the most significant advances in our field occur when we not only embrace different fields of study, but also adopt emerging concepts and tools from these disparate fields into our own work, by bridging disciplines, tissue types, and developmental systems. 

With this in mind, the theme of the 2016 GRC is "Stepping Across Disciplines to Spur Innovation in Musculoskeletal Biology and Bioengineering". The aim of this program is to bring together thought leaders from across our field to discuss how their interdisciplinary approach has led to advances in MSK biology and bioengineering research. To emphasize the need to break through these "tissue silos", we have developed a program that addresses common themes that are agnostic of tissue type, highlighting advances and integrating new insights across tissue types. The goal of this meeting is to foster such interdisciplinary integration to drive innovation in MSK Biology and Bioengineering and to build new scientific interactions across the field.