Omic data integration and machine learning to define molecular drivers of chondrogenesis

This project, titled "Omic Data Integration and Machine Learning to Define Molecular Drivers of Chondrogenesis", is proposed by the BBSRC NLD DTP (Biological Sciences Research Council Newcastle Liverpool Durham Doctoral Training Partnership) under the supervision of Dr Jamie Soul, Professor Mandy Peffers and Professor David Young, the first two supervisors being located in the University of Liverpool and the latter in the Newcastle University.

The project aims to discover biomarkers that regulate the chondrogenesis process to help treat osteoarthritis, a joint disease caused by the deterioration of the joint tissues over time, and that have no modifying drugs until now.

By studying the mechanisms that regulate the differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells into chondrocytes, we can develop new therapies and strategies to treat the cartilage degeneration process, the primary hallmark of osteoarthritis, and other cartilage-related disorders.

The research will employ a range of computational and experimental techniques and methods such as network-based approaches to omic data, including RNA-seq, ATAC-seq, and proteomics, to comprehensively understand the molecular changes that cells undergo during chondrogenesis. Additionally, we will leverage text-mining artificial intelligence to identify already-known regulators in biomedical literature.

We will combine the information previously obtained with machine-learning techniques. The discovered regulators will then be validated in vitro using stem cells.