Publication on the role of the serine synthesis pathway in chondrocytes

The MeBoDD lab recently published two manuscripts! In the first, Shauni Loopmans and colleagues investigated how culturing skeletal stem and progenitors in hypoxia rewires their metabolic profile. This study was published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, and you can read it here: https://academic.oup.com/jbmr/article/39/2/150/7516972?login=true . Congratulations!  In the second, published in Nature Reviews in Endocrinology, we provide an overview of the current knowledge on skeletal cell metabolism and how it regulates their function during bone development and disease. For more reading: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41574-024-00969-x

The abstract of Karina Geurtzen was selected for a plenary oral presentation at the 2023 ECTS meeting in Liverpool, UK and at 2024 Keystone Symposium on Tumor Metabolism in Banff, Canada. Here, she presented how mitochondrial respiration in breast tumor cells drives bone metastasis. Congratulations!!

Congratulations to Steve Stegen, who published his work on the role of de novo serine synthesis for osteoclastogenesis in Nature Metabolism. In this study, we could show that transient activation of the serine synthesis pathway during the early phases of osteoclast differentiation is necessary to generate a-ketoglutarate, which is subsequently used for epigenetic regulation of NFATc1 expression. You can read the article here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-023-00948-y

In 2023, the lab received funding for two new research projects. In the first project, funded by the Research Foundation-Flanders (‘Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek’ – FWO), we will investigate in collaboration with the lab of prof. Vanessa Dubois (UGhent) the effect of gender-affirming therapy, started during early puberty, on liver and bone. In the second project, funded by an internal grant by the KU Leuven (Special Research Fund), we will investigate whether and how metabolic changes in skeletal progenitors underlie the osteo-adipogenic switch that is observed during osteoporotic bone loss. We thank the funding agencies for their generous support and are looking forward to the exciting new insights that these projects will generate!

We welcome Karina Guertzen, Bethan Davies, Lore Rosseels and Annabel Müller to the lab! Karina will work on the metabolic reprogramming in bone-metastasizing breast cancer cells, Bethan will investigate the metabolic rewiring in skeletal progenitors during metabolic bone disease, Lore will study the role of glucose metabolism in skeletal progenitors during bone development and repair, and Annabel will investigate the impact of anti-obesity drugs on bone metabolism.

Claire-Sophie Devignes, Shauni Loopmans, Guillaume Tournaire, Sophie Torrekens and Sisir Kumar Barik have all found exciting new (scientific) challenges. Good luck with your new projects and we wish you all the best!

Big congratulations to Shauni Loopmans, now also known as Dr. Loopmans, for defending her PhD thesis entitled ‘Understanding chondrocyte metabolism and its applications for bone tissue engineering’! Thank you to the jury members Ernestina Schipani, Martina Rauner, Rik Lories and Guy Eelen for challenging Shauni and making this a great interactive defense.

In collaboration with the European Space Agency, a delegation of the MeBoDD lab traveled to Florida (2022) to send osteoblastic cells to the International Space Station. Upon their return to earth, we will investigate the impact of space conditions on bone cell metabolism and behavior.

As of October 1 st 2022, our postdoc Steve Stegen will start his own research group at the Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology Unit. His research will focus on the metabolic crosstalk of skeletal cells and how this is altered during pathology. We wish him the best of luck and look forward continuing our collaboration in the future!