Staff Profile

Areas of expertise

Cartilage and Bone Biology

Mechanisms of Rare and Common Bone Diseases

Musculoskeletal Aging

Cell Stress and Chaperones

Qualifications

2018          PhD: "The role of CRELD2 in skeletal development and bone homeostasis".  Newcastle University, UK.

2014          MRes (Medical & Molecular Biosciences): "The role of ER stress in the pathology of genetic skeletal diseaes". Newcastle University, UK

2013          BSc (Hons) Biochemistry with Industrial Experience. University of Manchester, UK. Industrial Experience at QIAGEN, Manchester, UK.

ORCID: 0000-002-3076-703X

Scopus: 57205080729

Google Scholar: Ella Patricia Dennis

Grants and Awards

2022          £797,793 - MRC Research Grant (MR/X001873/1), Defining the role of aggrecan and type X collagen in osteoarthritis and osteochondritis dissecans through in vivo studies of genetic bone disease. Lead Investigator: Prof. Michael Briggs. Co-Investigators: Dr Ella Dennis, Dr Katarzyna Pirog, Prof. David Young, Dr Blandine Poulet (University of Liverpool).

2022          £2,073 - MRC Versus Arthritis Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Aging (CIMA) Post-Doctoral Bursary Award. The role of a novel chaperone as a novel non-invasive biomarker for osteoarthritis. Lead Investigator: Dr Ella Dennis.

2022          £187,180 - Healx Technology Limited commercial partnership, In vivo testing of compounds as potential therapies using transgenic mouse models of Pseudoachondroplasia. Lead Investigator: Prof. Michael Briggs. Named Researcher/Project Lead: Dr Ella Dennis.

2021          £58,186 - JGW Patterson Foundation, Targeting chondrocyte stress as a potential therapy for genetic bone diseases. Lead Investigator: Prof. Michael Briggs. Named Researcher/Project Lead: Dr Ella Dennis.

2022         £75,312 - Newcastle University Faculty of Medical Sciences PhD Studentship funded by the Barbour Foundation, Targeting a novel chaperone to block prostate cancer bone metastasis. Supervisors: Dr Ella Dennis, Dr Jennifer Munkley, Prof. Michael Briggs.

Postgraduate Supervision

Adam Duxfield, 2020-present: PhD student

Bhuvanashree Ramakrishnan, 2022: MRes

Jamie Jordan, 2021: MRes 

I also regularly supervise undergraduate students and visiting summer students.

• Articles

  • Hodgson K, Orozco-Moreno M, Goode EA, Fisher M, Garnham R, Beatson R, Turner H, Livermore K, Zhou Y, Wilson L, Visser EA, Pijnenborg JF, Eerden N, Moons SJ, Rossing E, Hysenaj G, Krishna R, Peng Z, Nangkana KP, Schmidt EN, Duxfield A, Dennis EP, Heer R, Lawson MA, Macauley M, Elliott DJ, Bull C, Scott E, Boltje TJ, Drake RR, Wang N, Munkley J. Sialic acid blockade inhibits the metastatic spread of prostate cancer to bone. eBioMedicine 2024, 104, 105163.
  • Dennis EP, Watson RN, McPate F, Briggs MD. Curcumin Reduces Pathological Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress through Increasing Proteolysis of Mutant Matrilin-3. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2023, 24(2), 1496.
  • Duxfield A, Munkley J, Briggs MD, Dennis EP. CRELD2 is a novel modulator of calcium release and calcineurin-NFAT signalling during osteoclast differentiation. Scientific Reports 2022, 12(1), 13884.
  • Dobson PF, Dennis EP, Hipps D, Reeve A, Laude A, Bradshaw C, Stamp C, Smith A, Deehan DJ, Turnbull DM, Greaves LC. Mitochondrial dysfunction impairs osteogenesis, increases osteoclast activity, and accelerates age related bone loss. Scientific Reports 2020, 10(1), 11643.
  • Dennis EP, Edwards SM, Jackson RM, Hartley CL, Tsompani D, Capulli M, Teti A, Boot-Handford RP, Young DA, Piróg KA, Briggs MD. CRELD2 is a novel LRP1 chaperone that regulates non-canonical WNT signalling in skeletal development. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 2020, 35(8), 1452-1469.
  • Piróg KA, Dennis EP, Hartley CL, Jackson RM, Soul J, Schwartz JM, Bateman JF, Boot-Handford RP, Briggs MD. XBP1 signalling is essential for alleviating mutant protein aggregation in ER-stress related skeletal disease. PLoS Genetics 2019, 15(7), e1008215.
  • Bell PA, Dennis EP, Hartley CL, Jackson RM, Porter A, Boot-Handford RP, Pirog KA, Briggs MD. Mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor is an important factor in chondrocyte ER homeostasis. Cell Stress and Chaperones 2018, 24(1), 159-173.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Dennis EP, Capulli M, Teti A, Pirog KA, Briggs MD. The role of Creld2 in skeletal development and homeostasis. In: 43rd Annual European Calcified Tissue Society Congress. 2016, Rome, Italy: Bone Abstracts.
  • Dennis EP, Edwards SM, Boot-Handford RP, Pirog KA, Briggs MD. The role of CRELD2 in skeletal development and homeostasis. In: British Society for Matrix Biology / Bone Research Society Third Joint Meeting. 2015, Edinburgh: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

• Reviews

  • Dennis EP, Greenhalgh-Maychell PL, Briggs MD. Multiple epiphyseal dysplasia and related disorders: Molecular genetics, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic avenues. Developmental Dynamics 2021, 250(3), 345-359.
  • Briggs MD, Dennis EP, Dietmar H, Pirog KA. New developments in chondrocyte ER-stress and related diseases. F1000Research 2020, 9, 290.