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Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute

 

 

Professor Andrew McCaskie

Regenerative therapies for bone and cartilage repair

Email: awm41@cam.ac.uk

Laboratory: Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge Biomedical Campus.

Departmental Affiliation: Surgery, Division of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery

 

Biography

Andrew McCaskie moved to Cambridge in 2013 to take up the Professorship in Orthopaedic Surgery, becoming Head of the Department of Surgery in 2017. He led the bid to establish the Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre and became the Director. The Centre brings together many institutions across the UK (University of Cambridge, Newcastle University, the University of Aberdeen, Keele University/the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Oswestry, the University of York and the University of Birmingham) bringing together clinicians, engineers and biologists from research and clinical groups to develop regenerative therapies for people with Osteoarthritis. Funded by a core grant of £2.4 million in the first five years and renewed in 2016 (£1.9M) the centre was subsequently renamed; Versus Arthritis; Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Therapies Centre. Professor McCaskie led the Smart Step programme (£1.1M) as part of Stage II UK Regenerative Medicine Platform and is a co-investigator in the recently established UK Regenerative Medicine Platform Hub; Engineered cell environment (£5.1M). His clinical interest is lower limb, particularly hip disease in young patients and he aims to link research to the clinic, for example clinical trials (cell therapy trial for knee arthritis - ADIPOA2 EU €5.9M). He is one of the three editors of Bailey and Love's Short Practice of Surgery 27th Edition and is the Director of the Academic Foundation Programme in Cambridge, establishing the transplant and regeneration theme. He Chairs the Cell Therapy Oversight Committee and represents Addenbrooke’s in the Midlands and Wales Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre. 

 

Funding

Versus Arthritis (formerly Arthritis Research UK), MRC & UK Regenerative Medicine Platform, Evelyn Trust, Alborada Foundation, European Commission Horizon 2020 

 

External Links

https://www.ukrmp.org.uk/hubs/engineered-cell-environment/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/research/our-current-research/our-research-centres/

https://surgery.medschl.cam.ac.uk/

 

Immunofluorescence image of a section through a joint illustrating the cellularity (nuclei stained blue) of the articular cartilage and meniscus.  The boundaries of the two apposing articular cartilage surfaces and the meniscal tissue are marked with yellow lines. 

 

Research

Professor McCaskie's aim is to develop innovative therapies for musculoskeletal disease, particularly in Osteoarthritis (OA) which affects around 8 million people in the UK alone. He is currently developing translational pathways for regenerative therapy in this area, linking laboratory research with clinical treatment, including clinical trials.

Laboratory research programmes focus on the opportunity to use adult stem/stromal populations, along with other relevant cell types (inflammatory, immune,  and chondrocyte) either alone or with tissue engineering approaches to target early disease. Our research also considers the mechanisms of joint destruction relevant to repair. Translational and clinical programmes seek to use stratified and experimental medicine approaches, particularly focused on imaging and tissue analysis during cartilage repair surgery. The latter includes cell characterisation by phenotype and single cell transcriptomics to understand the role played by cell therapies in the repair of joint tissues.

 

Key Publications

 

  • Elliott KS, Chapman K, Day-Williams A,... McCaskie A,... The arcOGEN consortium,... Zeggini E. Evaluation of the genetic overlap between osteoarthritis with body mass index and height using genome-wide association scan data. Ann Rheum Dis. 2013, 72(6), 935-941. PMCID: PMC3664369 
  • Zeggini E, Panoutsopoulou K, Southam L,... McCaskie A, Valdes AM, Spector TD, Loughlin J. Identification of new susceptibility loci for osteoarthritis (arcOGEN): a genome-wide association study. Lancet 2012, 380(9844), 815-823. PMCID:PMC3443899

 

The McCaskie Group

McCaskie Group members: 

Mohammad Alkhrayef
Mark Birch
Sarah Lindsay