Helen McCarthy

Biography

I completed my undergraduate degree in Biochemistry with Medical Biochemistry at Cardiff University in 2005.  In 2006, I joined the Charles Salt Centre for Metabolic Medicine at the RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry and, after a brief stint as a Research Assistant, I embarked upon my PhD studies with the University of Chester investigating the regulation of osteoprotegerin and dickopf-1 in osteoblastic cells (awarded 2011).  In 2010, I was employed by Keele University within the Regenerative Medicine Theme at the Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine, based at the RJAH Orthopaedic Hospital, Oswestry.  I joined a team of scientists led by Professor Sally Roberts and began working in the field of Regenerative Medicine, with particular interest in cell therapy for osteoarthritis.   

Research and scholarship

ISTM Research theme: Regenerative Medicine

Research Interests:

• Biology & pathology of musculoskeletal disorders
• Cell-based therapies for the repair of musculoskeletal tissues
• Monitoring the quality of repair tissue formed following cell based therapies of articular cartilage
• Studying the production and expression of extracellular matrix components and associated cellular signalling pathways in biopsies from ACI-treated patients.
• Identifying biomarkers of cartilage degeneration for OA