2008 Research Report

Bone Growth and Repair Research Unit

Sansom Institute, University of South Australia

Lab Relocation to UniSA and BGF’s Continued Support:

Prior to 2008, our research group (Bone Growth Foundation Research Lab) had been located at Women’s and Children’s Hospital where our work had been strongly supported by BGF. Due to (1) the lack of appropriate lab space/infrastructure support at WCH; (2) the need to further expand our research with our success in competitive funding; and (3) the excellent support provided to us from UniSA in research space, support for staff and students, infrastructure support, and academic environment, in early 2008, the research team has moved over to the Sansom Institute, University of South Australia.

With the newly obtained NHMRC funding and some UniSA support, in April 2008 we have recruited 3 new researchers into our research team: Dr Tetyana Shandala, Dr Blair Hopwood, and Mr Stan Falvel (as Lab Manager). At UniSA, although success of our research team will be more dependent on the likelihood of external competitive grants, continuous and sustainable success for an expanded research team will require other forms of funding, such as the community charity funding like BGF. Therefore, it is still our strong wish to continue to receive BGF support for our research. We ensure BGF is acknowledged in all our publications and scientific presentations as we have done so in the past.

We are very grateful that our research group still receives strong support from BGF. In 2008, our group was awarded by BGF a research grant of $60,000 and a PhD top-up scholarship for one of our PhD students ($10,000). In addition, as a loan from BGF, we are using several items of research equipment owned by BGF, including image analysis systems, hybridization oven, centrifuges, fridges and freezers. 

Overview of Our Current Research:

Children’s bone growth is influenced by genetic factors and many environmental factors such as nutrition, trauma, or medical treatments. We are currently working on the following areas related to children's bone growth: (1) Bone growth mechanisms and regulation; (2) Mechanisms for injury responses and bone growth arrest after growth plate fracture; (3) Development of growth factors and/or stem cell-based treatments for repairing injured growth plate cartilage; (4) Mechanisms for chemotherapy-induced bone growth defects and development of preventative treatments.

Research Staff and Students in 2007:

In 2008, we have 13 members our Lab, including 2 postdoctoral fellows, 1 research associate, 1 lab manager, 6 PhD students and 2 honours students.

Assoc Prof Cory Xian, Head of the Lab (Funded by NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship)

Dr Tetyana Shandala, Research Fellow (Funded by NHMRC grant)

Dr Blair Hopwood, Research Fellow (Funded by NHMRC grant)

Michaela Scherer, Research Associate (Funded by NHMRC grant)

Stan Flavel, Lab Manager/Research Associate (Funded by NHMRC grant)

Rosa McCarty, PhD Student (John Fitzgerald /BGF PhD scholarship, completed at end of 2007; awarded PhD in 2008)

Carmen Macsai, PhD Student (Isis Projects - BGF / University of Adelaide PhD Scholarship)

Rosa Chung, PhD Student (University of Adelaide PhD Scholarship)

Chia-Ming Fan, PhD Student (University of Adelaide PhD Scholarship)

Tristan King, PhD Student (University of Adelaide PhD Scholarship)

Kristen Georgiou, PhD Student (University of Adelaide PhD Scholarship)

Laura Fong, PhD Student (University of Adelaide PhD Scholarship)

Rethi Raghu Nadhanan, Honours Student (University of Adelaide)

Maria Garcia, Honours Student (UniSA)

2008 Highlights:

• Rosa McCarty completed her PhD thesis in December 2007 and was awarded PhD in August 2008. She is now working as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian Stem Cell Research Centre in Melbourne. Congratulations to Rosa.
• Carmen Macsai has one review article (on Wnt signalling in bone growth and repair) published in Journal of Cellular Physiology in 2008. Well done, Carmen.
• Chiaming Fan has one research article (on protection of bone growth during cancer chemotherapy) published in BONE in 2008. Well done, Chiaming.
• Rosa McCarty has one research article (on sheep bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells) in press in Journal of Cellular Physiology in 2008. Well done, Rosa.
• Conference Presentations and Awards – C Fan, R Chung, M Scherer, C Xian: Chiaming Fan – Best Poster Presentation Award, 2008 International Conference of Cell Biology (Seoul, Korea). Rosa Chung, Michaela Scherer, Cory Xian – Web Jee Travel Grant Award, 2008 International Conference of Osteoporosis and Bone Research (Beijing, China). Cory Xian – Best Paper Award, 2008 International Conference of Osteoporosis and Bone Research (Beijing, China). Tristan King also gave poster presentation at 2008 International Conference of Osteoporosis and Bone Research (Beijing, China).
• Oral Presentations at International Conferences – R Chung & C Xian: Rosa and Cory gave oral presentations at 2008 International Conference of Osteoporosis and Bone Research, Beijing, China.  Cory was an invited speaker at the 118th Eastern Forum – Metabolism, Repair and Regeneration of Bone and Cartilage (Shanghai, China).
• 2008 summer vacation research students – Christina Abi-Abdallah (Cancer Council SA Vacation Research Scholarship) and Yuen-Ching Yip (UniSA Division of Health Sciences Vacation Research Scholarship). Welcome to both to the lab.

2008 Competitive Funding:

• Xian CJ & BK Foster (2007-2009): NHMRC – Roles of injury-induced inflammatory response in bony repair of growth plate cartilage. A$351,700 (3 years)

• Xian CJ (2008-2012): NHMRC - NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship. $537,500 (5 years)
• Xian CJ & BK Foster (2008-2010): NHMRC - Pathophysiology and prevention of methotrexate chemotherapy-induced bone growth defects. $597,750 (3 years)
• Xian CJ & BK Foster (2008): Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation – Protective effects of antidote folinic acid in methotrexate chemotherapy-induced bone growth defects. $50,000 (1 year)
• Shandala T & Xian CJ (2008): University of South Australia Divisional Health Sciences Research Development Grant Scheme 2008 - The ex vivo analysis of the role of Sirtuin family of protein deacetylases in bone growth. A$10,000 (1 year)
• Hopwood B & Xian CJ (2008): University of South Australia Divisional Health Sciences Research Development Grant Scheme 2008 - The in vitro analysis of the role of neurotrophins in osteocyte differentiation and bone remodeling. A$10,000 (1 year)

2008 Publications:

Xian CJ, JC Cool, M Scherer, CM Fan, and BK Foster (2008). Folinic acid attenuates methotrexate chemotherapy-induced damages on bone growth mechanisms and bone marrow stromal cells. Journal of Cellular Physiology 214:777-85. 

Macsai CE, BK Foster, CJ Xian (2008). Roles of Wnt signalling in bone growth, remodelling, skeletal disorders and fracture repair. Journal of Cellular Physiology 215:578-87

Fan C, Cool JC, Scherer MA, Foster BK, Shandala T, Tapp H, Xian CJ (2008). Damaging effects of chronic low-dose methotrexate usage on primary bone formation in young rats and potential protective effects of folinic acid supplementary treatment. Bone 2008 Oct 11 [Epub ahead of print].

McCarty, R.C., Gronthos, S., Zannettino, A.C.W., Foster, B.K., Xian, C.J. Characterisation and Developmental Potential of Ovine Bone Marrow Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Journal of Cellular Physiology. In press

Xian CJ and Zhou X-F (2008). Treating skeletal pain: limitations of conventional anti-inflammatory drugs and anti-neurotrophic factor as a possible alternative. Nature Clinical Practice Rheumatology (in press). (Invited review)

Xian CJ, R Chung, CE Macsai, BK Foster (2008). Injury responses and repair mechanisms at the injured growth plate cartilage of growing long bones. In: Research Advances in Histochemistry and Cytochemistry. Ed: R.M. Mohan. Global Research Network, Kerala, India. (Invited book chapter)