Nickel Maunu M, Meulenbelt I, Ramos YFM | 22-07-2026 | Stem cells are key for development of disease modeling and therapies. While promising, however, current application of cutting-edge hiPSC technologies is, among others, confounded by cellular heterogeneity leading to concerns about their suitability for experimental and clinical applications. Variations across donors, tissue sources, methodologies, [...]

Giorgia Mazzini, Margo Tuerlings,[...], and Ingrid Meulenbelt | 08-06-2026 | Cell-based cartilage repair is limited by loss of chondrogenic potential during in vitro expansion. Fibronectin (FN)-based selection may enrich progenitor-like cells with better matrix-forming ability, but its long-term effect on ECM production by hiPSC-derived chondroprogenitors (hiCPCs), their derived chondrocytes (hiCHOs), and primary articular chondrocytes (hACs) [...]

Rick Mulders, Mathew Nickel-Maunu,[...], and Ingrid Meulenbelt | 22-04-2026 | Human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) offer a powerful platform to model chondrogenesis and enable regenerative strategies, yet regulation of cell-fate commitment remains elusive. Here, we systematically mapped cell-fate trajectories from 7 time points during a 49-day chondrogenic hiPSC differentiation protocol using single-nucleus multimodal [...]

When cells reach a permanent growth arrest (Senescence) and resist death, this can result in numerous diseases, such as osteoarthritis. Here we show the presence of two different types of senescence in the blood metabolome of osteoarthritis patients. These blood metabolome patterns could function as biomarkers for patient-tailored targeting of senescence in OA. Accumulation [...]

The role of TNFRSF11B in development of osteoarthritic cartilage. Rheumatology (Oxford) |  2022 Feb 2;61(2):856-864. | doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/keab440 Rodríguez Ruiz A, Tuerlings M, Das A, Coutinho de Almeida R, Suchiman HED, Nelissen RGHH, Ramos YFM, Meulenbelt I. Abstract Objectives: OA is a complex genetic disease with different risk factors contributing to its development. One of [...]

High-impact FN1 mutation decreases chondrogenic potential and affects cartilage deposition via decreased binding to collagen type II I| November 5 - 2021 | Science Advances Marcella van Hoolwerff, Alejandro Rodríguez Ruiz, Marga Bouma,  H. Eka D. Suchiman, Roman i. Koning, Carolina r. Jost, Aat a. Mulder, Christian Freund, Farshid Guilak, Yolande F. M. Ramos and Ingrid [...]

Marcella's latest publication in Science Advances is out now! Science Advances published the work of Marcella van Hoolwerff et al, where a high impact mutation was identified by exome sequencing in FN1 in affected family members of an early-onset osteoarthritis family. Upon introducing this mutation in an in vitro OA disease model using human [...]

Deciphering osteoarthritis genetics across 826,690 individuals from 9 populations |September 2021 |Cell Cindy G Boer, Konstantinos Hatzikotoulas, Lorraine Southam, Lilja Stefánsdóttir, Yanfei Zhang, Rodrigo Coutinho de Almeida,........., Rob R G H H Nelissen, Margo Tuerlings, arcOGEN Consortium,.................., Ingrid Meulenbelt  , Ming Ta Michael Lee, Joyce B J van Meurs, Unnur Styrkársdóttir, Eleftheria Zeggini Abstract Osteoarthritis affects over 300 million people worldwide. Here, we conduct a genome-wide [...]