Nerissa Naidoo
Associate Professor of Anatomy, College of Medicine
"I am immensely grateful to have been awarded this prestigious grant by the Dubai Future Foundation. By targeting osteoarthritis at the molecular level, my team and I are committed to shifting the focus from symptom management to true disease modification, offering renewed hope to those affected by this debilitating condition in the United Arab Emirates and beyond. It is a profound privilege to stand at the helm of scientific research in Dubai, guided by a patient-first ethos and driven by innovation and precision medicine."
Osteoarthritis is a chronic, progressive joint disease affecting over 500 million people globally, including a growing patient population in the United Arab Emirates. Characterized by cartilage degradation, synovial inflammation, and subchondral bone remodelling, osteoarthritis leads to chronic pain and disability. Current treatments are palliative, offering symptomatic relief without halting disease progression. Recent advances suggest that epigenetic dysregulation plays a central role in osteoarthritis pathogenesis by disrupting chondrocyte homeostasis and promoting inflammation and extracellular matrix degradation. Notably, these epigenetic changes are reversible, making them attractive targets for disease-modifying therapies.
Accordingly, this project aims to investigate the epigenetic regulation of osteoarthritis and evaluate pharmaceutical and nutraceutical modulators as potential therapeutic agents. Primary chondrocytes isolated from patient-derived osteoarthritic knee and hip tissues will serve as a clinically relevant model, inherently reflecting the inflammatory joint microenvironment. The impact of therapeutic agents on chondrocyte viability and extracellular matrix integrity will be assessed through functional assays, alongside epigenetic profiling and integrated bioinformatics to identify molecular signatures, key regulatory pathways, and potential biomarkers.
With the support of Dubai Health and King’s College Hospital London Dubai, and in alignment with Dubai Future Foundation’s Health and Life Sciences priority sector, this translational project seeks to advance precision medicine for osteoarthritis, building regional expertise in epigenetic therapeutics, and addressing the significant disease burden posed by this condition.