New collaborative research centre on regeneration processes at the Charité
Berlin, 27.11.2020
Bone regeneration is seen as a blueprint for scarless healing. The new Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) “Controlled cellular self-organisation to improve bone regeneration”, which is supported by the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, is now investigating which factors and mechanisms are important in this process, how they interact and how they change during ageing. The findings should help to understand the exact processes and enable regeneration into old age. The joint project is being funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for an initial period of four years with more than 12 million euros. Project start is 1 January 2021.
Bone tissue is one of the few that is capable of scarless healing and thus complete restoration of structure and function. Bone is therefore also an ideal model system for understanding the general principles of the body’s own healing and cellular self-organisation. While these healing processes basically work well in young and healthy people, these processes change in older or pre-diseased people: With increasing age, lack of exercise, chronic inflammation and metabolic diseases, there are also changes in bone healing. Musculoskeletal diseases therefore occur more frequently in older people. In principle, however, all these patients receive similar care, although the healing potential can vary greatly from person to person. A deeper understanding of the changes in the body’s own healing processes due to aging, metabolic diseases or altered immune response – so-called “immunoaging” – is largely lacking. However, such an understanding is a prerequisite for individual treatment of these patients.
“The beginning of the healing process is crucial for long-term success,” explains Prof. Dr. Georg N. Duda, spokesman of the new research association, director of the Julius Wolff Institute for Biomechanics and Musculoskeletal Regeneration at the Charité and BIH-Chair for Engineering Regenerative Therapies. “If the healing process derails at the beginning, this will always lead to a delay or even complete absence of healing. Central to successful healing is a well-controlled immune response, sufficient supply and a well-structured tissue base”. Until now, these three aspects – inflammation, metabolism, and mechanics – have only been considered individually. The new SFB 1444 “Directed Cellular Self-Organisation for Advancing Bone Regeneration” aims to contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved and their coordinated interaction. The basic mechanisms that lead to the success or failure of the body’s own regeneration processes are examined in more detail here – using bone regeneration as an example. The aim is to decipher how the interactions are controlled and regulated and how they can adapt during normal ageing processes so that regeneration remains possible into old age.
The joint project brings together leading scientists from basic research and the clinic of the Charité, the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), the Free University of Berlin, the Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB), the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (MPIKG) and the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) in Potsdam. A total of 28 scientists are cooperating in 16 projects. In addition to Prof. Duda, deputy spokesperson is Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Volk, Director of the Institute of Medical Immunology, and spokesperson of the Regenerative Focus at BIH and Charité (BCRT).
“Our long-term goal is to influence the interactions between inflammation, metabolism and mechanics in such a way that the body’s own regeneration is enabled even in difficult healing situations,” says Dr. Katharina Schmidt-Bleek, scientific coordinator of the SFB. This should create the conditions for improved risk assessment and personalised therapy approaches for patients.