Articular cartilage (AC) plays a crucial role in enabling smooth and pain‑free body movement through efficient and frictionless load transfer in our joints. However, due to the lack of blood vessels and low initial cell numbers, cartilage tissue has almost no capacity to heal itself once damaged. Even small injuries can progress to larger defects over time, ultimately contributing to degenerative joint diseases such as osteoarthritis (OA). With OA affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide, the need for effective AC regeneration strategies is greater than ever.
Current clinical treatments for cartilage defects (e.g. autologous chondrocyte implantation) often result in fibrocartilage and a disorganized, isotropic tissue structure that cannot endure the same mechanical loads as native hyaline cartilage, leading to failure over time. Consequently, previous research has highlighted the importance for guiding the characteristic zonal collagen fiber alignment within engineered or regenerated cartilage to enhance its mechanical durability and strength. This leads to the following key question:
Is it possible to guide cartilage growth via physical biomaterials-based cues to achieve the characteristic zonal collagen alignment? Embedded in research domain 2 and part of the in-situ musculoskeletal regeneration subtopic within DRIVE-RM, this is one of the main research questions I will focus on.
My project will revolve around guiding structural organization and remodeling of engineered neocartilage by using a modular, bottom-up tissue engineering approach. This technique combines tunable microgels with cartilage microtissues.
In the context of AC tissue engineering, cartilage organoids have emerged as powerful building blocks for creating larger tissue constructs. These small, highly controlled 3D cellular aggregates mimic key features of native cartilage, including cell–cell interactions and matrix deposition. By mixing hydrogel microparticles (i.e. microgels) with defined shapes and thermoresponsive properties to the microtissues, we aim to better control the organoid growth, fusion and overall tissue organization.
Within DRIVE-RM, we collaborate closely with Prof. Dr. Tina Vermonden and Sanne van de Looij (Utrecht University). This collaboration supports valuable knowledge exchange about advanced hydrogels in the context of cartilage tissue engineering, which is a fundamental part of my project.
I am excited to be part of this research journey in the field of regenerative medicine. I believe that my project will help to further understand how cartilage tissue architecture develops and how it can be controlled. Ultimately, this may support the development of future injectable and tunable regenerative therapies for cartilage repair.
