Professor Justin P Cobb

Professor Cobb studied medicine at Magdalen College Oxford, graduating in 1982. He trained in Oxford, London and Brighton.  He wrote his master’s thesis on ‘Prognostic factors in operable osteosarcoma’. In 1991 he was appointed consultant orthopaedic surgeon at The Middlesex. He was awarded a Hunterian Professorship in 1992. After 15 years as a consultant at UCLH and Hon Sen Lect at UCL, he joined Imperial as chair of orthopaedics in 2005

His first grant in the field of computer assisted orthopaedic surgery was from the special trustees of  The Middlesex and UCH in 1992, together with Brian Davies from Imperial. This led to the Acrobot being developed subsequently, on a Link funded grant. With Professor Andrew Amis, in the Faculty of Engineering, he has designed a suite of partial knee replacements specifically for robotic insertion, that minimise the amount of bone removed at surgery. This programme has been taken over by Stanmore Implants, who are providing these custom made implants, for robotic insertion. The pilot study of this technology is underway now at Charing Cross.

His principal resarch interests are in the fields of :

• the use of advanced technology to ensure accuracy and precision in surgery

• modelling joint surfaces in early joint disease, and the design of less invasive and better functioning devices  

• functional assessment of the injured joint and cost utility analysis.

As chair of Orthopaedics, and clinical lead at hospital, Professor Cobb leads a team of surgeons, investigators and educators training both under- and post-graduate students in surgical skills and the use of IC developed computer based and robotic technologies to improve outcomes.

Professor Cobb is advisor to the board of Stanmore Implants, a spinout from UCL. He is a civilian advisor in orthopaedics to the Royal Air Force. He is on the staff of  King Edward VII hospital for Officers, and is Orthopaedic Surgeon to Her Majesty the Queen.