SkelGEN

This cross-continental consortium has four distinct but inter-related Work Packages (WPs) for the joint exchange programme to generate.

The SkelGEN project, funded by the European Union International Research Staff Exchange Scheme (EU FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IRSES: No 318553) is to achieve coordinated and planned institutional research collaborations to ultimately establish a larger collaborative research project to specifically develop and apply platform technologies for skeletal tissue regeneration.

The SkelGEN consortium was initiated in December 2012 and includes seven EU beneficiaries, four of which are based in the UK (University of Leeds, University of Southampton, University of Oxford and University of Loughborough), two in Portugal (University of Minho and Polytechnic Institute of Leiria), University Medical Center of Ultretch, Netherlands and two New Zealand partners (University of Auckland and University of Otago), with the University of Manchester joining the consortium in early 2015.

This cross-continental consortium aids to cover to topics of:

• appropriate stem cells (led by University of Southampton)
• scaffolds (led by University of Otago)
• interaction and development of scaffolds through experimentally informed computational modelling (led by University of Southampton)
• the evaluation of osteochondral and/or bone-ligament constructs in various small and large animal models for proof-of-concept clinical efficacy (led by University of Leeds)

SkelGEN key partners:

• Dr Xuebin Yang, University of Leeds - EU Coordinator and WP4 Lead
• Professor Jill Cornish, University of Auckland - New Zealand Coordinator
• Professor Richard Oreffo, University of Southampton - WP1 Lead
• Dr Tim Woodfield, University of Otago - WP2 Lead
• Dr Bram Sengers, University of Southampton - WP3 Lead
• Dr Yang Liu, University of Loughborough - UK partner
• Dr Cameron Brown, University of Oxford - UK partner
• Professor Paulo Bartolo, University of Manchester - UK partner
• Professor Rui Reis, University of Minho - Portugal partner
• Dr Pedro Morouco, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria - Portugal partner
• Dr Jos Malda, University Medical Center of Ultrecht - The Netherlands partner
• Mr Reg Harris - Industrial Development Facilitator

The SkelGEN Final Progress Meeting was successfully held at the University of Otago, New Zealand from 30-31 August 2016. Organised by Associate Professor Tim Woodfield from University of Otago, the meeting was attended by over 30 delegates, including SkelGEN beneficiaries, partners and industry. Click here to read more about the SkelGEN Final Progress Meeting.