We went out for the Skeletal Research Group (SRG) drinks and a PI curry yesterday to celebrate the coming of spring and the recent SRG successes, including

Several publications:

• Machine learning based prioritisation of genes associated with osteoarthritis joint damage in animals. Soul J, Young DA. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2026 Mar;34(3):475-483. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2026.01.002.

• Chromatin accessibility in MSC chondrogenesis, adult hip cartilage chondrocytes and osteoarthritis. Barter MJ, Soul J, Cheung K, Falk J, Putri K, Farrier AJ, Panagiotopoulos A, Deehan DJ, Reynard LN, Young DA. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2026 Mar;34(3):417-431. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2025.12.015.

• Transcriptomic profiling confirms microRNA-140 is more functional in joint development than in disease. Hao Y, Lin H, Soul J, Overman LM, Lisgo SN, Coxhead J, Piróg KA, Clark IM, Barter MJ, Reynard LN, Young DA. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2026 Mar;34(3):405-416. doi: 10.1016/j.joca.2025.11.005.

• Elevated MMP9 Expression-A Potential In Vitro Biomarker for COMPopathies. Dietmar HF, Dennis EP, Johnson de Sousa Brito FM, Reynard LN, Young DA, Briggs MD. Int J Mol Sci. 2025 Dec 15;26(24):12070. doi: 10.3390/ijms262412070.

Grant funding:

• 2026-2029 Dr Jack Roberts provisional acceptance to the Vivensa Early Postdoctoral Fellowship (supervised by Prof David Young, Dr Katarzyna Pirog, Dr Emma Blain (Cardiff University), Dr Jamie Soul (University of Liverpool))
• 2026-2029 EPSRC PRISM: Piezo-Regulated Immunomodulatory Smart Matrix (lead PI: Dr Ana Ferreira-Duarte, co-PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog, Prof Catharien Hilkens, Dr Priscila Melo, Prof Matthew Dalby (University of Glasgow), Dr Massimo Vassalli (University of Glasgow), Dr March Birch (Cambridge University))
• 2026-2027 JGW Patterson Foundation Nanoparticle delivery system (lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog, co-Is: Dr Randa Zoqlam (UCL))
• 2026 NC3Rs/BBSRC Business Interaction Voucher (lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog, co-Is: Dr Ana Ferreira-Duarte, Dr James Henstock (Northumbria University))
• 2026 Doctoral College Award for Maria Lazari to attend the Matrix biology Europe meeting in June 2026, and to visit Dr Leo Solis’s lab to optimised her organoid culture system for bioreactor scale-up
• 2026 BSMB Bursary Award to Roufaida Bouchenafa to attend the German Society for Matrix Biology (DMB) meeting in Heidelberg in April 2026, and to Cagla Erdas to attend the MBE in June 2026

Well done everyone!!!

We had our joint Briggs, Pirog, Reynard, Rice and Young groups Christmas meal yesterday in the wonderful My Delhi, and celebrated working together and the many dissertation, publication and grant successes of 2025. It has been a really productive year!

We’d like to wish all our friends and collaborators a wonderful festive break. We are looking forward to more exciting science, meetings and outputs next year!

João has finished his secondment in our lab this week. Over the course of 3 months he characterised the mechanical properties of his osteochondral plug system and investigated the role of oxidative and ER-stress in OA progression. Yesterday we went to Alnwick to see the castle and the famous bookshop and drove back to Newcastle along the scenic coastal route.

It was an absolute pleasure to host João in our lab!

We are looking forward to seeing the analysed data and to catching up with João at the next CHANGE annual meeting in January 2026.

We’re back from a lovely visit to Manchester to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Manchester Cell Matrix Centre. It had been a home to many matrix biology scientists including our very own Skeletal Research Group Prof Mike Briggs (1997-2012), Prof David Young (1997-1998), Dr Kasia Pirog (2001-2012), and Dr Ella Dennis (2011-2012).

It was great to see everyone, be reminded of the history of this great centre, see old friends and great science that continues to be delivered in Manchester.

We did talk about science as well! We are looking forward to new collaborations and continued working together.

Happy 30th anniversary, Manchester Cell Matrix Centre! and well done!

We had a great 2nd Annual Meeting of the CHANGE project 19th-21st of February 2025. It was a little bit cold, but Krakow is a beautiful city!

We had very productive 3 days talking about science, seeing the amazing progress our DCs have made, discussing science and future directions, and networking. We have also organised several training sessions: in biogerontology and detection of senescence (by Prof Johannes Grillari from our partner Evercyte), in ex vivo techniques and bioreactors (by Dr Linda Kock from Lifetec), in preclinical imaging (by Dr Marta Fabian from the University of Pavia) and in open science (by Dr Kasia Piróg from Newcastle University).

Our students have made great progress, completed many productive secondments, made great friends in their network and beyond, acquired new skills and learnt many new techniques. They also presented their data at national and international conferences, engaged with patients organisations and general public groups and events, and contributed to published book chapters, invited review publications, and original research papers.

We are extremely proud of our DCs and their achievements, and we can’t wait to see what the final year brings!

To find out more about our network, visit: https://change-msca.eu and follow us on BlueSky or on LinkedIn

Merry Christmas from the Pirog and Briggs labs!

2024 was a very good year for the Pirog lab, with plenty to celebrate. Fran completed her project and generated lots of exciting data (watch this space for updates), Rachel successfully defended her PhD thesis (which we are now writing up into a paper!), Marc finished in the lab and started writing up his thesis, Anna generated a great set of preliminary data in the first year of her PhD, Gemma graduated from her MRes with a distinction, Maria made first great discoveries in her project, and Roufaida completed two secondments (one in Padova and one in Pavia) and generated data that will lead to publications and new investigation avenues. We also got MRC funding for an exciting project (led by Prof Mike Briggs and shared between Briggs, Pirog and Young labs) looking at drug repurposing for bone diseases, and we published two research papers, a book chapter and a review.

Well done everyone, and thank you very much for all your hard work and for all the fun times together. I have been very lucky to be able to work with all of you. Wishing you all a lovely Christmas break, and all the best in 2025! Kasia

We had a great time at the 1st Annual Meeting of the CHANGE project, organised in Vienna by Evercyte, one of our partners in the network. Vienna is an amazing city!

We had very productive 3 days talking about science, seeing the progress of our DCs, networking and training in public engagement, ethics, policy and EU regulations.

Our students have made great progress in their first year of PhD, made great friends in their network and during their secondments, acquired new skills and learnt a lot of techniques. They also presented at national and international conferences, engaged with patients and public, and contributed to book chapters and invited reviews.

We can’t wait to see what the second year brings. The next annual meeting will be in Krakow, can’t wait!

Wishing all our friends, colleagues and collaborators Merry Christmas, a great relaxing festive break and all the best in the New Year!