Bridging from joint to chondrocyte

Ilse Jonkers (KU Leuven)


An integrated, multi-scale approach to understand the role of mechanical loading in cartilage homeostasis and disease: Bridging from joint to chondrocyte.


Keynote Lecture, Thursday May 26th, 2022, 09:30-11:00, Chair: Simone Tassani


Abstract: To design and adapt therapeutic approaches that successfully impact degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA), it is indispensable to understand how articular cartilage is loaded during locomotion. Furthermore, the local cartilage loading needs to be related to the molecular response of the chondrocytes. In my presentation, I aim to demonstrate how multi-scale approaches will leverage unprecedented insights in the mechanobiological response of early osteoarthritic cartilage. More specific, I will identify biomarkers of early OA during locomotion (using multi-scale modeling), relate the mechanical loading to experimentally measured cartilage deformations (using high-field MRI) and identify the effect of the local mechanical cues to constituent using adaptive FE modeling informed by bioreactor experiments). I am convinced that the insights of such an integrated multi-scale approach will be at the basis of future regenerative interventions that hold the unique potential to arrest early structural cartilage changes that would otherwise progress to end-stage OA.


Biosketch: From my PhD (2000) onwards, I successfully bridged from a classical human movement science and physical therapy profile towards an integrated biomedical science and biomedical engineering profile, exploiting maximally the use of 3D motion capture and multi-body simulation techniques to advance the understanding on pathological movement. The two-year postdoctoral stay at the bioengineering department at Stanford University (Prof Delp) was a pivotal experience in this process. To date, I am a professor at the Human Movement Biomechanics Research Group at KU Leuven.