Oxford scientists awarded major grants for genetic research into osteoarthritis
SCIENTISTS in Oxford have been awarded two major grants of £235,000 by medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign for their work on osteoarthritis.
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting more than around 1.5 million people in the UK. It occurs when the healthy cartilage protecting joint surfaces wears away, leaving bone ends to rub together against each other. Many sufferers have a genetic predisposition to the disease, although joint injury and repetitive activity may also be factors.
At team led by Dr John Loughlin, ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford University's department of Cellular Science, and Profesor Bryan Sykes, has carried out a screen of the entire human genome (the whole genetic structure of the human body) in 481 families. They have identified regions on three chromosomes that are likely to contain genes that make some people susceptible to arthritis.
With a grant of £154,630 and his team will now spend the next three years narrowing down these regions with what is known as a high resolution mapping study, in an attempt to find the one gene among thousands which causes osteoarthritis.
"The fine mapping and association studies which we plan to carry out will narrow down the regions to help us identify these genes, and their identification will without doubt lead to a much better appreciation of the underlying processes of osteoarthritis," explained Dr Loughlin.
"In addition, identification of the gene involved in individual cases will help us to understand what goes wrong in osteoarthritis, and may even help with the prognosis and direct surgical or drug treatments."
In a separate line of research, Dr Anthony Day, MRC Senior Scientist at the University of Oxford's department biochemistry, has been awarded a three-year £80,000 grant to investigate how proteins and carbohydrates fit together to form the load-bearing properties of cartilage.
Oxford is one of the leading ARC-funded centres of research. The city is currently in receipt of 31 grants, totalling £4.6m.
