Osteoarthritis is the most common type of arthritis in the UK. It’s a condition that causes joints to become painful and stiff and is a leading cause of disability with no current disease-modifying treatments.
The funding supports two ambitious, complementary projects that aim to revolutionise how OA is diagnosed and treated.
The first award, granted under the Bridging Fellowship Call, will fund the development of the Osteoarthritis Serial Ubiquitin Multiome (OA-SUMome) discovery pipeline. This cutting-edge platform is designed to improve patient stratification and identify novel therapeutic targets, marking a significant step toward personalised medicine in OA care.
The second grant, awarded through the Early Detection and Targeted Treatments Call, focuses on the identification of active UCHL1 and a DUB trio signature as biomarkers. This work will enable early detection, disease severity assessment, and the development of targeted treatments for traumatic osteoarthritis.
Both grants are newly awarded through highly competitive processes that included open calls, rigorous peer reviews, and expert panel evaluations.
The project is led by Heba Ismail, who will oversee the research team’s efforts to uncover therapeutic targets for osteoarthritis and its associated conditions. The research aims to establish a group of enzymes as a reliable disease signature for both early diagnosis and prognosis.
Together, these projects form the foundation of the OA DUBdex bioindex, an integrated tool for early detection, disease monitoring, and personalised OA treatment. This represents a transformative shift from symptom management to true disease modification.
The work will not only bring us closer to changing the clinical landscape for OA patients, but it will also help reduce long-term healthcare costs by enabling more effective and timely intervention.
Heba Ismail said: “I’m incredibly grateful for this support from Versus Arthritis. Osteoarthritis is a debilitating disease with no disease-modifying therapies, and running both projects in tandem allows us to accelerate the journey from discovery to practical application, bringing us closer to transforming OA care through early diagnosis and targeted treatment.”
Stay tuned for updates as this exciting new chapter in OA research unfolds.