Medicine, University of Southampton

Professor Richard Oreffo holds the chair of Musculoskeletal Science and is Co-founder of the Centre for Human Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration. He is also Associate Dean Enterprise for the Faculty of Medicine.

Richard leads the Bone and Joint Research Group based at the Institute of Developmental Sciences, Southampton General Hospital. He has extensive expertise in skeletal biology and the mechanisms involved in skeletal stem cell differentiation.

The Group is focused on understanding bone development and developing strategies to regenerate bone and cartilage using stem cell technology and innovative scaffolds for orthopaedic application. Much of the work is undertaken in multidisciplinary programmes and Richard has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, 20 reviews andbook chapters, and holds 5 patents.

In 2001 Richard was recognised with the Maxime Hanns award for collaborative research in Bone Tissue Engineering, appointed to a Senior Lectureship in 2002 and to a Readership and Personal chair in 2004.

In 2008 he was appointed to the Research Council for Health of the Academy of Finland and is a member of the BBSRC Healthy Organism Panel (Deputy Chair), ARC Research Committee and UK National Stem Cell Network Advisory Committee.

Richard serves on the editorial boards of the journals Biomaterials, Tissue Engineering, European Cells and Materials, Regenerative Medicine, Journal of Tissue Engineering and Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.  He is on the board of Southampton Asset Management and has consulted for several biotechnology / Pharma companies.

Qualifications

B.Sc. Honours, Biology, University of Liverpool, 1983
D.Phil. Vitamin A and Bone, University of Oxford, 1986

Appointments held

Demonstrator, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford. 1985-1986

Research Fellow, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology,
University of Texas, San Antonio, Texas, USA. 1987-1989

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, Cheshire, UK.1990-1991

Principal Research Scientist, Zeneca Pharmaceuticals, Cheshire, UK.1991-1993

MRC Research Fellow, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 1993-1999

Non-Clinical lecturer, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.1999-2002

Senior lecturer, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.2002-2004

Reader, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK. 2004

Personal Chair in Musculoskeletal Science. 2004-present

Director of Enterprise – Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences. 2005-present

Associate Dean (Innovation and Enterprise), Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences. 2008-2010

Associate Dean Enterprise, Faculty of Medicine. 2010-2011

Associate Dean, International and Enterprise, 2011 - present

Adjunct Professor, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. 2010-present

The aim of the group is to understand the mechanisms of bone development, growth and regeneration, how these differ in skeletal abnormalities and diseases such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, and to what extent bone growth is programmed during fetal life.

Thus research in Professor Oreffo’s group is primarily centered on harnessing the potential of skeletal stem cells (whether derived from embryonic or fetal and adult sources) for the development of unique tissue engineering approaches for new cartilage and bone formation for orthopedic application. In parallel we are interested in the role of fetal programming as a consequence of maternal nutritional challenges on bone cell differentiation, activity, potential and bone function with age.

Skeletal Research - the potential of skeletal stem cells

The requirement for new bone to replace or restore the function of traumatised or degenerated bone, or for the replacement of lost mineralised tissue as a consequence of increasing age is a major clinical and socio-economic need. To date, bone formation stimulation regimes, although attractive, have yet to demonstrate clinical efficacy.

Research of the group has primarily centred on:

Understanding human skeletal stem cell biology and the development of unique tissue engineering approaches for cartilage and bone formation for orthopaedic application using human skeletal populations and, elucidating the role of fetal programming as a consequence of maternal nutritional challenge on mesenchymal progenitor cell differentiation, activity, potential and bone function with age.

This involves drawing together the elements of i) progenitor cell differentiation (specifically the control of mesenchymal stem/progenitor cell differentiation and plasticity), ii) generation of osteoconductive and inductive smart scaffold/materials (including the use of natural biomimetic environments and self -assembling scaffolds with appropriate extracellular matrix cues) and, iii) cell signal/growth factor biology to examine tissue regeneration.

Other areas of active research interest within the group include differentiation of pluripotent stem cells along the mesenchymal lineage as well as angiogenesis / revascularisation in tissue development.

The group is currently developing translational strategies for clinical application to couple cell technologies with biomimetic scaffolds in close collaboration with groups in the UK as well as international collaborations in Germany, Canada and the USA.

Thus current concepts, approaches and challenges from work in the group include:

i) The use of isolated and selected human osteoprogenitor cell populations with selected osteotropic agents in an attempt to modulate the phenotype of the skeletal stem cell to generate mineralised bone tissue,
ii) The role of epigenetics, maternal nutrition and intrauterine programming in skeletal development of related offspring
iii) Manipulation of the developmental potential of bone stem cells on modified biomimetic structures with select growth factors,
iv) Epidemiological Studies in Bone & Joint Research
v) Modelling of skeletal tissue formation – including gene network analysis as well as tissue growth modelling.
vi) Translation from bench to clinic

Although clinical efficacy has yet to be achieved, development of protocols, new tools and above all multidisciplinary approaches for de novo bone formation that utilise skeletal stem cells offer significant rewards for an increasing aged population both in terms of healthcare costs and, more importantly, improved quality of life.

Intrauterine Programming, Epigenetics, Skeletal Development and Bone Diseases

In collaboration with Prof. Cyrus Cooper (MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit) members of HDH and a number of international collaborators we are investigating, using a variety of animal models, how maternal protein deficiency affects bone growth. Our current ex vivo analysis of bone populations shows an important role of maternal nutrition in subsequent fetal bone development with significant implications in understanding the subsequent development of bone chronic diseases in later life such as osteoarthritis.

Academic unit:  Human Development and Health

Research projects