The Executive Committee working with the principal scientists is responsible for the day to day running of GENOSTEM. Their remit is to ensure that milestones are reached, and that deliverables are produced on time and to the highest quality. The ExCom also designs, approves and implements international communication strategies, consider potential exploitation avenues and manage the implementation of the proposed plan of activities.

Pr Christian Jorgensen

Coordinator of GENOSTEM and leader of cartilage repair work block

Christian Jorgensen MD PhD is a Professor in medicine within the university of Montpellier and a Rheumatologist and immunologist, with expertise in immunotherapy for RA. He has developed a research program on gene therapy in RA with expertise in viral (adeno, rAAV) and non viral methods (in vivo electroporation) for immunosuppressive cytokine gene transfer in arthritis. He has also developed cell therapy for cartilage repair in both OA and RA models, using mesenchymal stem cells. He is involved in the French commity for new therapy evaluation (commission-j transparence) and also in academic organisations (Société française thérapie génique, Eular, SFR).

Pr Pierre Charbord

Co-coordinator of GENOSTEM and Leader of  Mesenchymal stem cell isolation workblock.

Pierre Charbord MD is the Research director for Inserm with more than 25 years experience in the field of experimental hematology; more specifically he has the expertise on the role and characterization of MSCs and the hematopoietic microenvironment, having contributed more than 80 articles in international Journals and chapters in different books on stem cells.

 

Dr Thomas Häupl

Leader of Genomics and proteomics work block

Thomas Häupl MD is heading the group of gene expression analysis at the Dept. of Rheumatology at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. The group has built up broad experience with expression profiling in chronic inflammation of rheumatic diseases as well as joint regeneration by tissue engineering of cartilage and bone. The group is part of the BerlInflame initiative supported in the National Genome Research Network (NGFN) by the German Ministry of Education and Research.

 

Dr Nuno Neves 

Leader of Biomaterials work block

Nuno Neves PhD is the Team Leader of the University of Minho in the Genostem Consortium. The group is focused in the development of new Biomaterials based in natural polymers for bone and cartilage tissue engineering. The biomaterials are designed to maintain its Biodegradable character and the strategy tries to copy and follow processes existing in nature to develop Biomimetic solutions. Examples of biomaterials proposed for tissue engineering scaffolding and controlled release systems include blends and composites based in corn starch or in chitin/chitosan. In 2002, he joined the 3B’s Research Group, conducting since then his research in the development of new functional scaffolds, human adult stem cells and in-vitro and in-vivo technology aiming at obtaining regeneration of bone and cartilage.

 

Dr Pierre Marie

Leader of bone repair work block.

Pierre Marie PhD is a director of research and head of the group on Osteoblast Biology and Pathology for Inserm. Dr Marie  has expertise in basic aspects of bone metabolism and has been involved in the development of new drugs for osteoporosis. He sits on the editorial board of the journal Bone, and reviews for many presitigious journals including the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Nature Genetics. He is also a member of the scientific council of the University of Paris VII and the University René Descartes.

 

Dr Gerhard Gross

Leader of tendon repair work block.

Gerhard Gross PhD heads the group “Growth Factors in Osteo-/Chondrogenesis”  in the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI) in Braunschweig. The group has many years of experience in cellular osteo-/chondrogenic systems. These systems involve primary osteoblasts and chondrocytes as well as MSCs and mesenchymal stem cell lines. In these systems, the role of various factors such as BMPs (Bone Morphogenetic Proteins), PTH (Parathyroid Hormone), FGFs (Fibroblast Growth Factors) and their signalling mediators on osteogenic and chondrogenic development has been determined on a qualitative and quantitative basis.

 

Dr Jean-Thomas Vilquin

Responsible for the co-ordination of clinical applications.

Jean-Thomas Vilquin MD PhD is a senior scientist in INSERM, with a background in pharmacy and life science. In the previous twelve years he has worked for in both Quebec (Canada) and Paris (France) and is considered a specialist in cell therapy and animal modelling (small and large animals) particularly in regenerative cell transplantation.He is presently participating in two clinical trials  using cell transplantation. In addition he sits on the editoral committees of leading journals and on both the French institutes of health commission for stem cells and the commission for cell and gene therapy for the French association against myopathies.

 

Pr Yuti Chernajovsky

Responsible for gene transfer technologies.

Yuti Chernajovsky PhD is ARC Professor of Rheumatology and Head of the Bone and Joint Research Unit at Barts and The London. Trained as a molecular biologist at The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, his research activities have included the cloning of several interferons, interleukins and their receptors. He has contributed to the cloning and development of interferon beta as a therapeutic agent and the use of suicidal genes for cancer gene therapy. Current research interests include the development of gene transfer strategies for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases via cellular engineering, molecular design and genetic engineering.

 

Dr Christiane Dascher-Nadel

Genostem senior project Manager

Christiane Dascher-Nadel received her PhD in molecular genetics at the Max Planck Institute, Göttingen, Germany in 1991 and worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, USA, in the department of cell biology (1992 – 1996). In 1996 she joined the Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research (NIBR), Vienna, Austria, first as a laboratory head then as head of a R&D programme in the departments of Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases (1996 – 2001). With international experiences gained in both academic and industrial research she joined Inserm Transfert’s European Department in 2003. Christiane is managing several European projects and is responsible for a newly created team which is dedicated to managing research projects related to stem cell therapy within Inserm Transfert’s department for European and International Affairs.

 

 

The Executive Committee

 

Pr Paolo Bianco

Paolo Bianco, MD is a Professor of Pathology at la Sapienza University Rome, Italy

Adjunct Senior Investigator, CSDB, NIDCR, NIH, Bethesda MD, Expert consultant for Bone Pathology, Lab of Pathology, NCI, NIH.