Jérôme GUICHEUX

The skeleton is affected by a large number of diseases originating from developmental abnormalities, growth impairment, repair dysfunction, cancer and age-associated loss of function. Among these diseases, I am particularly interested in deciphering the pathogenic mechanisms of degenerative age-associated cartilage diseases including osteoarthritis (OA) and the disc degenerative disease also named discarthrosis (DA). I focus my attention on the role of anti-aging factors, autophagy and senescence in the onset of OA and DA. Thanks to the use of animal models closely mimicking the human disease, we are also trying to identify novel therapeutic targets. Due to the increasing clinical situations where cartilaginous tissues are lost (traumatic defects, congenital diseases..) or compromised (osteoarthritis, discarthrosis..), I am also involved in the development of research programs based on the use of stem cells (mesenchymal and induced pluripotent) and hydrogels for the development of joint-targeting drug delivery systems and cell-based regenerative therapeutics.
Key words: Skeleton, osteoarthritis, disc degenerative disease, stem cells, regenerative medicine, hydrogels, biomaterials-assisted cell therapy.

Jérôme Guicheux (YOB 1970) has received his PhD in cell biology and health sciences in 1997 at the 
Nantes University School of dental medicine. He was a research associate in the internal medicine and 
rheumatology department of the University Medical Center of Geneva (Switzerland) from 1997 to 2001. 
He was finally recruited as a tenured junior research scientist (CR) by the French national institute for 
health and medical research (INSERM) and assigned to the Nantes University in 2001. JG has been 
promoted and appointed INSERM junior Research Director (DR2)/full professor in 2008 and senior 
Research Director (DR1)/Full professor in 2019; He is currently director of the INSERM research Centre 
RMES « Regenerative Medicine and Skeleton » (130 pp, INSERM UMRS 1229, Nantes, France) and the 
scientific director of the SC3M core facility (electron Microscopy, Microcharacterization and functional 
Morpho-histology and imaging) of the François Bonamy Health Federative Research Institute.
JG is the national coordinator of the Inserm French network dedicated to peripheral and spine OA 
(netwOArk). JG is also a board member of Regenerate-Biospine, a member of the Translational Research 
Committee of the International Cartilage Regeneration and Joint Preservation Society (ICRS), a member 
of the research subcommittee for basic and translational research of The European Alliance of 
Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR), the french delegate to the management committee of the 
COST-funded osteoarthritis European network (COST EU-netwOArk), a visitation committee Board 
member of the Dutch Arthritis Society (Reumanederland) and was a member of the board of directors of 
the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI, 2016-2022).
JG has secured more than 100 research contracts, coordinated 5 pluri-annual programs from the French 
national research agency (ANR) and served as coordinator and WP/task leader in several European 
grants from FP7, FP8 and H2020. He has authored (updated 1st April 2022) more than 215 indexed 
publications (ISI web of knowledge H-index 56 and total citations 8760; google scholar H-index 66, i10 
index 161 and total citations 12511) and 9 patents and gave 120 invited lectures.
His research focuses on the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis and disc degenerative disease and the 
regenerative medicine of skeletal tissues including bone, articular cartilage and intervertebral disc. JG 
has notably contributed to strengthen the relevance of stem cells (mesenchymal stem cells and induced 
pluripotent stem cells) and biomaterials (polysaccharide-based hydrogels and calcium phosphate-based 
bone biomaterials) for the regeneration of osteoarticular tissues. ISI WOK Researcher ID F-7767-2013; 
ORCID 0000-0003-2754-3024.