Project description
Understanding mechanisms of cartilage damage progression to osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) affects millions of people, and joint injury at a young age often leads to long-term cartilage degradation. Abnormal mechanical loading is believed to contribute to cartilage degeneration after injury but a clear understanding of mechanobiological mechanisms in normal and pathological conditions is essential to developing treatment. The Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions-funded INpaCT project will study the underlying mechanisms in an in vitro model of OA progression. The project will focus on the poro-viscoelastic properties of cells and pericellular matrix during OA progression using new atomic force microscopy measurements in combination with computational modelling and optimisation algorithms. The elucidation of key players in cartilage damage will provide new insights into disease mechanisms and repair strategies.
Objective
Joint injuries are very frequent, especially among young people. Such injuries seldom heal and over time can lead to cartilage degeneration and ultimately osteoarthritis. Although, it is generally assumed that excessive mechanical loading post-injury can cause or accelerate the progression of cartilage degeneration, the precise mechanisms involved in the pathological processes at different structural length scales are still not fully understood. Thus, novel approaches for understanding structure-function relationships from the cell to tissue level in both health and disease are necessary. The overall aim of this research is to investigate the mechanisms of cartilage damage progression at different levels of tissue organization. The novelty of this research lies in the highly interdisciplinary approach of combining an in vitro model of OA progression with the state-of-the-art materials testing devices, computational modeling and sophisticated microscopic, spectroscopic and molecular biology techniques to carefully assess the mechanics, structure, composition and gene expression on cell and tissue levels. The novel data obtained from this research will shed light on the key mechanobiological pathways by which cartilage cells maintain healthy tissue or mount a healing response following tissue injury and excessive loading. This project is conducted as an international collaboration between University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. This represents a unique opportunity to bring together the complementary skill sets of Dr. Florea, Dr. Korhonen’s group and Prof. Grodzinsky’s group, with their expertise in biomechanics, computational modeling, biochemistry and cartilage biology. The mutually beneficial collaboration between Europe and USA can advance the field of cartilage research with significant potential to provide novel strategies to reduce/prevent cartilage degeneration for patients in Europe and beyond.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology tissue engineering
- natural sciences biological sciences biophysics
- natural sciences biological sciences molecular biology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2015
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
70211 KUOPIO
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.