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Staff Profile

Dr Tony Sorial

NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Trauma and Orthopaedics

Background

I am an academic orthopaedic surgeon with a focus on arthritis and ageing research. I undertook undergraduate training (MBChB - Medicine and Surgery, MSc - Tissue Engineering for Regenerative Medicine) at The University of Manchester, with my research project focussing on optimising culture conditions to enhance the differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSCs) into cartilage. As a post-graduate I completed the NIHR Academic Foundation Programme (North West) and in 2016 was appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Trauma and Orthopaedics in the Northern Deanery.


Since 2016, I have focussed on understanding the genetics and epigenetics of disabling musculoskeletal diseases (mainly osteoarthritis). I aim to apply this knowledge, and CRISPR-based genome editing tools, to develop novel therapies from MSCs and Human induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (HiPSCs). In future, this work aims to develop pathways for the production and validation of genetically resilient cartilage from human cell sources to treat osteoarthritis. 


I was awarded the 2020-21 Royal College of Surgeons UK-US Fulbright scholar award (http://www.fulbright.org.uk/about-us/meet-our-fulbrighters/2020-21-us-uk-fulbright-award-grantees/2020-21-british-scholar-award-grantees) to support my PhD work in Missouri with Farshid Guilak (https://orthopaedicresearch.wustl.edu/labs/farshid-guilak/).


I completed my PhD In June 2024 and was awarded and NIHR Clinical Lectureship in Trauma and Orthopaedics to facilitate protected research time from 2024-2028.


My MRes dissertation title (2013) was “Influence of culture conditions on Mesenchymal Stem Cell expansion and differentiation: implications for cartilage tissue engineering” and my PhD thesis title (2024) was "Development and validation of novel CRISPR based genome and epigenome editing pipelines to elucidate and modulate osteoarthritis risk”.





Key Collaborators


  • Professors John Loughlin & David Deehan - Newcastle University (genetics, epigenetics & surgical translation)
  • Professor Judith Hoyland - The University of Manchester (matrix biology)
  • Professor Farsh Guilak - Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, USA (cartilage regeneration from MSCs and HiPSCs, mechanobiology, single cell RNA sequencing) 
  • Professor Gerhard Wiche - Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria (cytoskeletal biology, plectinopathies)
  • Professor Miles Witham (Newcastle Univeristy) - sarcopenia, hip fracture outcomes, ageing and surgical frailty
  • Professor Mike Reed - surgical outcomes


Specialty Interests



  • Molecular genetics and epigenetics
  • DNA Methylation analyses
  • CRISPR-Cas9/dCas9 genome and epigenome editing
  • MSC and HiPSC chondrogenesis
  • Mechanobiology
  • Tissue engineering and regeneration
  • RNA sequencing including single cell (scRNA-Seq)
  • Visualising the cellular cytoskeleton
  • Patient and public involvement / engagement (PPI/E)
  • Outcomes research
  • Orthogeriatric research

 

My research has been supported by:


UK-US Fulbright Commission

Wellcome Trust

The Medical Research Council (MRC) Versus Arthritis Centre for Integrated research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA)

Royal College of Surgeons of England

Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

The John George William Patterson Foundation

The John Charnley Trust

Wrightington 3 Wishes Foundation

Leopharma Scholarship

JHG Holt Foundation

MRC

Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Charity

United States Government National Institutes of Health (NIH)


More information is available @ 


https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4449-014X

https://twitter.com/tsorial

Research

 

My research falls under two broad themes:

 

1) Basic science/translational


In this theme my research focusses on the genetics and epigenetics of disabling musculoskeletal disease, and how our understanding of this can be used to create genome edited, tissue engineered solutions to disease.


My research is collaborative and forms links between Newcastle University, The University of Manchester, Washington University in St Louis (MO, USA) and Universitat Wien (Vienna, AT).

 

2) Surgical frailty and outcomes research


In this theme I work closely with the AGE research group (Newcastle NIHR BRC), Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS foundation trust. The overarching aim is to use existing data to develop algorithms to predict (and eventually improve) outcomes from orthopaedic surgery. We are interested in sarcopenia, and low muscle mass, as markers of sub-clinical frailty, and how these may predict outcomes. We initially focussed on hip fracture research but we are now looking at elective surgery.

 

 

 

 

 


Teaching

 

I co-supervise projects (in collaboration with colleagues) in both basic science and other fields of orthopaedic/translational research.


Our previous intercalcated MR4es students have achieved first author publications, distinctions in intercalated MSc programmes and appointments to the nationally competetive NIHR specialised foundation programme (SFP).


I am happy to consider mentoring and supervising MRes/medical students/ post-graduate medics/PhD students. Please contact me by email (tony.sorial@ncl.ac.uk) if you are interested in getting involved in research.

Publications