Current projects

JGW Patterson foundation have kindly sponsored our study to further refine the modulation of an osteoarthritis susceptibility locus as potential therapy for OA and generate preclinical data leading to novel therapy for osteoarthritis.

Grant funded: 2024-2025 Potential therapy for osteoarthritis (lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog)

Horizon Europe MSCA project CHANGE (Cellular Homeostasis ANd AGing in Connective TissuE Disorders) unites 10 universities and 5 companies across Europe to provide PhD training and knowledge transfer to increase our capacity to study molecular pathways, mechanisms and multimorbidities in rare and common musculoskeletal conditions.

Grant funded: 2022-2026 HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 CHANGE (101072766; Newcastle PIs – lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog also as work package lead (WP6), co-I: Prof M Briggs)

Main achievements:

The NC3Rs have kindly funded our PhD project that combines the expertise of two supervisors (a cartilage biologist and a tissue engineer) to develop a zonally stratified mechanically responsive tissue engineered model of young and old human articular cartilage using human primary chondrocytes cultured in different hydrogels and/or bioprinting and use it to generate a transcriptomic profile of healthy cartilage ageing.

Grant funded: 2021-2025 Investigating biomechanical responses in healthy and diseased ageing cartilage – a tissue engineering approach (lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog, co-I: Dr Ana Ferreira Duarte)

Main achievements:

We are part of the collaborative MRC project grant awarded to the Newcastle and Liverpool Universities to investigate the impact of mechanical trauma on the progression of two age-related skeletal complications (osteoarthritis and osteochondritis dissecans) in genetically engineered mouse models of skeletal dysplasia.

Grant funded: 2023-2026 Defining the role of aggrecan and type IX collagen in osteoarthritis and osteochondritis dissecans through in vivo studies of genetic bone diseases (lead PI: Prof Michael Briggs, co-I: Dr Katarzyna Pirog, Prof David Young, Dr Matthew German, Dr Blandine Poulet, named PDRA: Dr Ella Dennis)

We are part of the collaborative MRC funded project at Newcastle University which aims to validate new treatments and generate pre-clinical data on drug repurposing through primary cell work and treatment and deep phenotyping of three genetically engineered mouse models of skeletal dysplasia.

Grant funded: 2025-2028 Drug repurposing in skeletal bone diseases (lead PI: Prof Michael Briggs, co-I: Dr Katarzyna Pirog, Prof David Young, named PDRA: Dr Ella Dennis)

Collaborations:

We are part of the of an exciting project to to explore aggregation of muscle cells cultured in vitro, and expanded in a bioreactor to explore their nutritional profiles. The work is a collaboration between Newcastle University, the University College London (UCL) and the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA), and will be delivered through a PhD studentship.

Grant funded: 2024-2027 (lead PI: Prof Che Connon, co-I: Dr Katarzyna Pirog)

Collaborative networks:

ECMage is a national research network funded in 2022 by the UKRI investigating healthy ageing of extracellular matrix. The ECMage network brings together expertise in key aspects of ageing, matrix biology, chronobiology, computational modelling and tissue engineering across UK to develop novel models to study ECM ageing. We are part of this exciting network which supports connective tissue aging research collaborations across the UK.

CHANGE is an international doctoral training network funded by Horizon Europe as part of the Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA). It unites 10 European universities and 5 small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with the aim to uncover molecular mechanisms in connective tissue ageing and disease. We are partners in this project, with training exchanges with the University of Padova, University of Pavia and LifeTec Group in Eindhoven.