Introduction Basic science studies are central to the development of new knowledge that can ultimately lead to therapies for the clinic. The selection of papers for the review of basic science publications in calendar year 2017 is not entirely subjective, in that citation counts were used to guide the identification of papers that have resonated within the field. However, the final choice of articles is tempered by a subjective determination of what the author has found to be novel and exciting, either in terms of knowledge discovery or in the development of disruptive new techniques that can be applied to basic science questions. As in past years, the review will not include work related to musculoskeletal oncology since this is to be the topic of a standalone review in an upcoming volume of this Journal1.