Growth and Cartilage Biology
The ultimate goal of our research is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing skeletal development and growth. This knowledge will then be applied to improve medical treatment in disorders of bone growth and structure as well as osteoarthritis, and to improve tissue-engineering of growth plate and articular cartilage.
Research Group Leader
Ola Nilsson
Professor/ÖverläkareResearch projects
We are currently pursuing the following projects:
1. Regulation of longitudinal bone growth in health and disease
We aim to:
- Explore the cellular and molecular changes that occur in the growth plate during normal development and disease.
- Understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of malnutrition and endocrine-induced growth inhibition at the level of the growth plate.
2. Growth Plate and Articular Cartilage Biology
We aim to:
- Characterize the cellular and molecular changes that occurs in individual layers of growth plate and articular cartilage during development
- Understand the paracrine mechanisms necessary for development and cellular homeostasis within articular and growth plate cartilage.
- Develop organ culture models to study paracrine signalling between the discrete layers of articular and growth plate cartilage.
3. Tissue Engineering of Growth Plate and Articular Cartilage
We aim to:
- Characterize chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem-cells into chondrocytes.
- Engineer chondrocyte pellet cultures into growth plate and articular cartilage.
- Explore the feasibility of using in vitro differentiated cartilage to repair growth plate and articular cartilage defects.
Group members
Ellie Landman, PhD, Post doc
Alexandra Gkourogianni, MD, PhD, Post doc
Ameya Bendre, Post doc
Marta Baroncelli, Post doc
Alexandra Gkourogianni, MD, PhD, Post doc
Zelong Dou, MSc, PhD-Student
Sigrun Hallgrimsdottir, MD, PhD-student