Advance-CTR
Chathuraka Jayasuriya, PhD
Assistant Professor of Orthopaedics
Awards
Advance-CTR Pilot Projects Program (2016)
"Meniscal Repair Using a Novel Subset of Cartilage-Derived Human Stem Cells"
Co-PI: Brett Owens, MD
Meniscal injury is a heavy risk factor for the early onset and development of osteoarthritis (OA), which is currently the leading cause of disability in the elderly population of Rhode Island and all of the US. Therefore, there is precedence for improving how meniscal injuries are clinically treated as to prevent early OA development. The long-term goal of this proposal is to advance cell-based meniscal repair strategies. To do this, we will evaluate the natural clinical abundance and reparative capability of a newly characterized chondrogenic subpopulation of cartilage-derived stem cells that do not express Thy-1 (CD90) cell surface protein.