{"id":41,"date":"2015-05-18T17:12:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T16:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/katarzynapirog\/?page_id=41"},"modified":"2026-04-02T12:06:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T11:06:01","slug":"current-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/piroglab\/current-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Current projects"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We are part of the collaborative EPSRC <\/a>funded project at Newcastle University aiming to develop a smart injectable biomaterial to deliver therapeutic cells to actively repair cartilage by mimicking natural healing processes triggered by movement, delivering local immunomodulatory treatments and stimulating cartilage cells to grow and repair the damaged tissue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant awarded<\/span>: 2026-2029 PRISM: Piezo-Regulated Immunomodulatory Smart Matrix (lead PI: Dr Ana Ferreira-Duarte, co-PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog<\/strong> (and work package lead), Prof Catharien Hilkens, Dr Priscila Melo, Prof Matthew Dalby (University of Glasgow), Dr Massimo Vassalli (University of Glasgow), Dr March Birch (Cambridge University))<\/p>\n\n\n

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We are very pleased to be involved in the supervisory team of Dr Jack Roberts who has been awarded the Vivensa Foundation Early Career Fellowship for his project entitled “Unlocking osteoarthritis: transcriptomic and functional analysis of novel osteoarthritis effector genes”. We will be providing our expertise in cartilage development and deep phenotyping of preclinical models of disease. We are looking forward to working with Jack on this exciting project!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant awarded<\/span>: 2026-2029 Unlocking osteoarthritis: transcriptomic and functional analysis of novel osteoarthritis effector genes (lead applicant: Dr Jack Roberts, lead PI: Prof David Young, co-PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog<\/strong>, Dr Jamie Soul (University of Liverpool), Dr Emma Blain (Cardiff University)<\/p>\n\n\n

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We are part of the collaborative MRC<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant awarded<\/span>: 2025-2028 Drug repurposing in skeletal bone diseases (lead PI: Prof Michael Briggs, co-PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog<\/strong>, Prof David Young, named PDRA: Dr Ella Dennis)<\/p>\n\n\n

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The JGW Patterson Foundation<\/a> have kindly sponsored this exciting proof-of-principle research project in which we are planning to optimise several nanoparticle formulations to create a novel drug delivery system for delivery of microRNA and\/or siRNA treatments directly to the articular cartilage for therapeutic treatment of osteoarthritis and other cartilage-related conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant awarded<\/span>: 2026-2027 (lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog<\/strong>, co-Is: Dr Randa Zoqlam (UCL)<\/p>\n\n\n

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We are sharing our tissue engineering expertise in this exciting project exploring the aggregation potential of different bovine muscle progenitor cells and possibility of bioreactor scale-up. The work is a collaboration between Newcastle University, the University College London (UCL) and the Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant awarded<\/span>: 2024-2027 (lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog<\/strong>, co-I: Dr Leonardo Rios Solis (UCL), Dr Rosario Romero (FERA))<\/p>\n\n\n

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We are hosting the T\u00fcrkiye Ministry of National Education project in Regenerative Medicine in our laboratory as part of the YLSY scholarship programme awarded to C\u0327ag\u0306la Erdas\u0327, MD and a PhD candidate in our lab, who is developing “Innovative Biomaterials for Corneal Regeneration: Integrating RGDS Peptides with MMP-Cleavable Motifs”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant awarded<\/span>: 2023-2027 Innovative Biomaterials for Corneal Regeneration: Integrating RGDS Peptides with MMP-Cleavable Motifs (lead applicant: C\u0327ag\u0306la Erdas\u0327, lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog<\/strong>, co-Is: Prof Francisco Figueiredo)<\/p>\n\n\n

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We received a NC3Rs\/BBSRC Business Interaction Voucher Award<\/a>, designed to catalyse the development of tools and methodologies that reduce reliance on animals in research. Our project in collaboration with Copner Biotech<\/a> and Northumbria University will use advanced bioprinting to generate cartilage-like structures for investigating the biological mechanisms in development, ageing and disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant awarded<\/span>: 2026 Novel bioprinting technologies for engineering of compressible zonally stratified cartilage tissue for study of therapeutic interventions (lead PI:<\/strong> Dr Katarzyna Pirog<\/strong>, co-Is: Dr Ana Ferreira-Duarte, Dr James Henstock (Northumbria University))<\/p>\n\n\n

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Horizon Europe MSCA project CHANGE<\/a> (C<\/span>ellular H<\/span>omeostasis AN<\/span>d AG<\/span>ing in Connective TissuE<\/span> Disorders) unites 10 universities and 5 companies across Europe to provide PhD training and knowledge transfer needed to increase our capacity to study molecular pathways, mechanisms and multimorbidities in rare and common musculoskeletal conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grant awarded<\/span>: 2022-2026 HORIZON-MSCA-2021-DN-01 CHANGE (101072766; Newcastle PIs – lead PI: Dr Katarzyna Pirog<\/strong> also as work package lead (WP6), co-I: Prof M Briggs)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main achievements<\/span>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n