Friday, February 3
| Arthritis
Foundation
In July, we reported on Dr. Farshid
Guilak’s remarkable
breakthrough in orthopedic and osteoarthritis research. That
research found a way to grow new cartilage on a hip joint shaped scaffold,
using stem cells. His current Arthritis Foundation-funded project, “Engineering
New Biologic Therapies for Arthritis,” is just as trailblazing.
Dr. Guilak is working on an
“arthritis vaccine.” It’s a way to deliver customized drug treatment and cell
repair through the use of a biologic product.
His current research has created
smart stem cells. “Stem cells don’t target specific areas,” said Dr. Guilak.
“We are (genetically) reprogramming stem cells to do what we want them to.”
According to Dr. Guilak, the
genetically created smart stem cells identify inflamed cells. Once the inflamed
cells are identified, the smart stem cells incorporate themselves, not only to
repair damaged cartilage, but also to produce and deliver specific therapeutic
drugs to stop the inflammation. The smart stem cells are programmed to be
active only when and where inflammation is present.
He explained that this application
is currently aimed at inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and
that the advantage of using smart stem cells is that they can be
individually designed to deliver just the right amount of therapy, instead of a
constant, long-term exposure to very strong anti-inflammatory drugs. Dr. Guilak
said that the smart stem cells will stop the inflammation and repair damaged
cells at the same time. For his next steps with this technology, Dr. Guilak
wants to work on sciatic and JIA applications for smart stem cells. “The
inflammatory processes are different for these diseases than RA,” he explained.
“So we need to adjust the programming.”
Highly committed to the arthritis
community and finding cures, in his spare time Dr. Guilak enjoys taking part in
the foundation’s Jingle Bell Run.
His team has won awards for fundraising and best team costumes in the past. A
big Star Wars fan, last year he and his team took on a Star Wars theme. His
humor and dedication were obvious when he played “Darth-ritis” at
last year’s event!
Dr. Guilak and his team have also
taken part in some of our Juvenile Arthritis conferences by teaching sessions to
explain arthritis and the importance of research. They had kids of all ages use
gels to create cartilage for a hands-on understanding of how things work. His
team also used “Cure E. Us” the mouse to explain lab research.
Dr. Guilak is a professor at
Washington University Department of Orthopedic Surgery and is Director of
Research for Shriners Hospitals for Children in St. Louis. He is also the
co-director of the Washington University Center of Regenerative Medicine and
has appointments in the Departments of Developmental Biology and Biomedical
Engineering.
We thank Dr. Guilak and all of our
researchers for the amazing, innovative and truly inspiring work that they do
day in and day out. To read more about our researchers, check out these past
articles:
http://blog.arthritis.org/news/arthritis-research-farshid-guilak/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=DDM&utm_campaign=research&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiT0RFNFltUTVOVEF3Tm1FMyIsInQiOiJRNGs4cFlwOFdCUllPRGQwU0FFMUlcL0dEczhcL1wvVHp0QlZienlrQW1OeTlCaW9vWEVkN1hzeFRDR1BvUmg0MWhpU3IxWkxxR1RcLzFIdE1XTFwvRk5haVFLejBVSmc4dE94ZTVMOW42YjcrbDFyY3pXRWFxZTFZeHkyRXQ4TGZwZ0IzIn0%3D
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