A developing metacarpal joint with skeletal stem cells (green) and mature cartilage cells (red). (Image courtesy of the Evseenko Lab)Denis Evseenko, a stem cell researcher at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, has been awarded two grants totaling more than $4 million to support osteoarthritis research. A $3.4 million R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health will fund research on the mechanisms behind the development, progression and prevention of osteoarthritis. A $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense will fund pre-clinical research on novel drug candidates that may have the potential to regenerate cartilage and slow the progression of osteoarthritis.
“Osteoarthritis is a looming public health problem with few solutions on the horizon,” said Evseenko, associate professor of orthopedic surgery, and stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at the Keck School. “With these concurrent research efforts, we hope to translate our foundational knowledge about joint cartilage development into clinical therapies that would improve millions of lives.”
