The Versus Arthritis Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Therapies Centre  is led by the University of Cambridge and is a unique collaboration with leading clinicians, engineers and biologists from research and clinical groups at the University of Aberdeen, University of Birmingham, Keele University, Newcastle University, the Robert Jones & Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry, and University of York .

Versus Arthritis has renewed, for a further five years, the funding of a major experimental tissue engineering initiative which seeks to regenerate bone and cartilage by using stem and stromal cells to treat the damaged joint.

In its first 5 years, the Centre developed a bench to bedside approach to research, including a clinical trial designed to understand the treatment of early osteoarthritis with stem cells placed in the damaged joints. The Centre now aims to refine these approaches with a greater understanding of patients receiving treatment and the mechanism of action of the therapy, and to carry out further clinical trials of effectiveness in human subjects.

Funded by a £1.9 million award over five years from Versus Arthritis, with further funding pledged by the participating universities, the Centre is focused on translating innovative tissue engineering developments directly to patients in order to prevent or treat osteoarthritis (OA).

The work is structured into two core themes:

• Patients – clinical trials and linked systems biology approach.
• Cell populations – both as therapy and target for therapy.