Southampton Researchers awarded BBSRC grant
Professor Richard Oreffo, Dr Janos Kanczler and Dr Nicholas Evans have been awarded a BBSRC Project Grant for their project “Smart materials for targeted stem cell fate and function in skeletal repair.”
The work, a collaborative two centre project led at University of Southampton by Richard Oreffo, Janos Kanczler and Nicholas Evans and led at the University of Edinburgh by Professor Mark Bradley, has been awarded almost £900K by the BBSRC over 36 months.
The use of stem cells for cell-based therapies is currently one of the most exciting and promising areas for disease treatment and reparative medicine.
The project will look to control stem cell phenotype by delivery of growth factors or regulatory master genes offering great therapeutic potential in regenerative medicine, with the potential to permanently repopulate a host with stem cells and their progeny.
The work between Southampton and Edinburgh will use a multidisciplinary strategy, to create novel methods for targeted growth factor delivery and cellular labelling using macroporous scaffolds for specific adult stem cells for bone repair.
“This is really exciting, our work will generate, for the first time, multiple combinatorial growth and transcription factor delivery scaffolds that will enable us to target stem cell fate and stem cell function – this will provide a unique approach to orchestrate bone repair” said Professor Oreffo.
The BBSRC has a unique and central place in supporting the UK’s world-leading position in bioscience. Their vision is to lead world-class 21st century bioscience, promoting innovation and realising benefits for society within and beyond the UK. Find out more about BBSRC here.
This award adds to the MRC UKRMP Acelullar scaffolds platform hub award to Nottingham (Southampton (Oreffo) co-investigator with £275K) and UKRMP Imaging award for Regenerative Medicine (£1.17M - Oreffo (PI), Lackie, Page, Smith and Sinclair), gained this summer.