New MRC grant awarded
A new MRC grant entitled Treatment of osteoarthritis by inhibition of aggrecanases using targeted delivery of engineered TIMP-3 has been awarded. This Medical Research Council-funded project is a collaboration between Prof. Andrew Pitsillides (RVC), (University of East Anglia) and is led by , Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
The project seeks to harness the chondroprotective properties of a natural inhibitor of aggrecanases, named TIMP3, to protect against osteoarthritis. It will employ a novel method of delivering a genetically-modified form of TIMP3, which will have greater specificity capable of targeting its activity only to sites of disease, thus eliminating possible side-effects and increasing its therapeutic efficacy.