Dr Thibault Griseri has been awarded a Career Development Fellowship from Arthritis Research UK for his project on “Haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells as novel therapeutic targets in chronic inflammatory arthritis”.
Around 10 million people in the UK have arthritis and over 500,000 suffer from chronic inflammatory arthritis. There is yet no cure for this highly disabling and painful condition, although there are many available treatments, which help to slow down the condition. Understanding what causes the inflammation and the chronicity of some types of arthritis is key to the development of better treatments. By bringing together the fields of haematopoiesis – the formation of blood cellular components – and immunology, Dr Griseri’s project will look into how haematopoiesis inside and outside the bone marrow is influenced by inflammatory signals and how haematopoietic stem cells and progenitors cells contribute to chronicity of disease in inflammatory arthritis.
Speaking of his award, Dr Griseri says: "I am delighted and grateful to get this award because it will have a great impact in what is known about arthritis and we will be able to further develop our study of the regulation of haematopoiesis in intestinal inflammatory diseases1 to models of chronic inflammation arthritis and explore the possible crosstalk between intestinal and joint inflammation. Establishing this link will bring us closer to more advanced treatments for this condition."