I am a first year PhD student at Keele University and The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry.

I was awarded a BSc in Biological science in 2019 from Yangzhou University, China. In 2020, I was awarded a MSc in Cell and Tissue Engineering with distinction from Keele University.

My research project is Cell therapy for repair of cartilage defects in the ankle – how does it work and who should we treat?

Untreated cartilage defects in the ankle can lead to OA. Various versions of a cell therapy, using a one-step arthroscopic technique to deliver bone-marrow aspirate concentrate (BMAC) into a cartilage defect to delay the development of OA have been used in the ankle at RJAH. This reverse-translational study aims to establish the exact cell population/s obtained via BMAC (in both commercially available ‘normal’ and patient samples); assess their chondrogenic potency and phenotype and how these cells might relate to a good clinical outcome; identify biomarkers within the synovial fluid and bloods which may predict which patients are most likely to benefit from this treatment.