Fight hypertrophic OsteoArthritis Cartilage - towards an Ultimate Solution

FOACUS aims to advance development of, desperately needed, disease modifying osteoarthritic drugs. Hereto a screening platform will be developed that allows for drug target identification acting on the debilitating effect of dysfunctional hypertrophic articular chondrocytes; a major underlying cause of OA pathophysiology in humans. To accomplish this goal, we have brought together a multidisciplinary team of scientists from academia and industry committed to cross critical barriers and accelerate effective drug development in OA. This is critical if we want to comply to the demands of a healthy ageing society with members that have to remain mobile and economically independent for longer. 

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent chronic age-related joint disease, causing pain and disability. Despite its high social and economic burden, advancements in clinical development towards effective disease modifying OA treatment (DMOAD) has suffered a backlog. As a result OA is significantly decreasing quality of life of patients while increasing absenteeism from work, and healthcare costs.  

The following multidisciplinary and intertwined work packages are defined:  

WP1 Generate and characterize a human 3D ex-vivo model of hypertrophic OA. 

WP2.1 Tailor the established human 3D in-vitro cartilage model towards a hypertrophic OA disease model with a sensitive read-out system.  

WP2.2 Establish a high throughput 3D in-vitro hypertrophic OA screening platform 

WP3 Advance the hypertrophic OA screening platform by implementing induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) and CRISPR/Cas9 technology 

In summary by establishing reproducible screening platform readily applicable for target-identification of dysfunctional hypertrophic articular chondrocytes, FOACUS will create a stepping stone towards effective disease modifying OA drug development ultimately alleviating the social and economic burden that OA puts on our society.