Harnessing bone macrophage and osteoclast programs and function to promote bone regeneration (P11)

• Subject Area: Medical Informatics and Medical Bioinformatics
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 427826188

Following bone fracture, heterogeneous subsets of macrophages are recruited to the fracture site and play important roles in fracture healing. The factors that regulate the diverse macrophage and osteoclast programs and function during bone regeneration remain, however, unclear. We have recently identified that NKp46-dependent and ILC1-derived GM-CSF (CSF2) critically controls the differentiation of monocyte-derived macrophages. Further, we showed that the DNA Damage Response kinase ATR critically controls the levels of c-Myc, thus tightly regulating the numbers of bone macrophages and osteoclasts. Here, we aim to identify innate factors and pathways that promote bone regeneration by regulating the programs and functions of bone macrophages and osteoclasts. Our goal is to devise new strategies to promote bone regeneration in patients with compromised healing responses.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1444: Directed Cellular Self-Organization to Advance Bone Regeneration
• Applicant Institution: shared FU Berlin and HU Berlin through:; Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Andreas Diefenbach; Professorin Dr. Antigoni Triantafyllopoulou