Project description
Unravelling the mechanobiology of osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease that affects millions of people worldwide. The knees are most commonly affected by chronic pain, impaired mobility and significant disability. Despite ongoing research efforts, the precise mechanisms driving disease progression remain unclear and there is no definitive cure for OA. The ERC-funded OA-CONNECT aims to understand why the mechanical load that normally preserves cartilage integrity triggers degeneration in OA. Researchers will follow a multidisciplinary approach to unravel the association between joint mechanics and cell biology as well as identify the key drivers behind this interplay. This pioneering work aims to guide the design of effective therapies and enhance patient care quality.
Objective
Osteoarthritis (OA), a degenerative joint disease, debilitates the lives of 242 million people globally but remains without a cure.
The knee joint is most frequently affected, causing pain, loss of joint function, and reduced quality of life. OA-CONNECT
instigates an innovative approach to understanding the fundamental cause of OA by posing a question that could previously
never be answered: ‘What causes mechanical loads to switch from supporting to disrupting cartilage health in OA?’
OA-CONNECT introduces a unique, integrated approach CONNECT-ing joint function to chondrocyte biology to unravel
the OA Mechanome, the maladaptive dynamic interplay of mechanical and biological drivers of OA cartilage degeneration
across cellular-, tissue- and joint- scales by:
(1) Connecting the spatial mechanical and cell molecular dynamics underlying OA cartilage adaptation to loading, using multimodal
read-outs from spatial omics, functional microscopy, and high-field MRI.
(2) Predicting cartilage degeneration by connecting knee joint cartilage loads during movement to local cellular mechanobiological
processes, using a multi-scale mechanobiology-inspired adaptive modeling framework informed by datasets of (1).
(3) Elucidating cartilage degeneration probability and mechanotherapy success in subjects with early knee OA, integrating the
multi-scale model of (2) with machine learning, multi-variate and population-based methods leveraging the use of clinically
accessible ‘real-world’ data. Prospective cohort and proof-of-concept studies will capture the dynamics of mechanical and
biological drivers and the impact of three current mechanotherapies.
The field of OA needs a shift in focus as the approaches of the past 20 years could not bring the mechanistic insights required
to develop treatment strategies. By dissecting the Goldilocks problem of mechanical load, OA-CONNECT will initiate a
groundbreaking shift in unraveling mechanobiological drivers in an uncharted direction.
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: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
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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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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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.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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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) ERC-2024-ADG
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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.
3000 Leuven
Belgium
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.