BDRC SEMINAR SERIES
Martin Knight
Queen Mary University
Friday 12th February 2016 1pm – 2pm
June Lloyd Seminar Room (PUW4)
Primary Cilia Structure-Function in Cartilage
Health and Disease
Abstract
Prof Martin Knight’s multidisciplinary research group examines the role of mechanobiology and the
primary cilium in development, health and disease. The research covers a range of cell types
including chondrocytes, tenocytes, fibroblasts and stem cells and explores diseases including
arthritis, inflammation and cancer. This presentation will cover our work investigating the
fundamental primary cilia structure-function relationships.
Extensive studies from Knight’s group have examined the process of chondrocyte
mechanotransduction and have shown how primary cilia are required for mechanosensitive ATPinduced Ca2+ signalling and regulation of cartilage matrix synthesis. We have also shown how
primary cilia are required for inflammatory signalling in response to the cytokine, IL1β. Further
studies have examined chondrocyte hedgehog signalling which is important in cartilage
development and has also been implicated in osteoarthritis. Using human mesenchymal stem cells
we have shown how differentiation results in changes in cilia length and how such changes are
essential in regulating adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation. Throughout these studies we have
shown how primary cilia signalling, including hedgehog, wnt and mechanotransduction, are all
regulated by subtle changes in cilia structure induced by external biophysical and chemical stimuli.
This has opened up the possibility of so called ciliotherapies for treatment of diseases through
manipulation of cilia structure-function.
BioSketch
Martin Knight is a professor of mechanobiology at Queen Mary University of London. His research
group is based in the School of Engineering and Materials Science and the new Institute of
Bioengineering.
Martin’s first degree was in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath. However he has always
had a passion for Medical Engineering and went on to an MSc in Biomedical Engineering followed by
a PhD at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre (IRC) in Biomedical Materials at Queen Mary University
of London (QMUL). In 2000, Martin was awarded a prestigious EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship
followed by a lectureship in Medical Engineering at QMUL. This was followed by promotion to reader
in 2009 and then professor in 2012. His research spans a broad area of biomechanics and
mechanobiology from tissue mechanics to cell mechanics and mechanotransduction signalling.
However his particular interest is in the structure and function of primary cilia and their role in
diseases such cancer, tendinopathy, obesity and arthritis.