Arthritis Research Group
Working together in order to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to disorders of the joint, with the view of improving the lives of people with arthritis.
Arthritis is a term used generally to describe disorders associated with the musculoskeletal system. There are over 200 different types of arthritis, which can be classified as inflammatory or non-inflammatory, acute or chronic.
Within the i3-IRG arthritis special interest group, we have investigators actively researching all aspects of the synovial joint (bone, cartilage and synovium) and how these may become compromised during disease.
Aims
- Working together in order to improve our understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to disorders of the joint, with the view of improving the lives of people with arthritis.
Our group uses a range of experimental model systems and novel imaging techniques to reveal changes in inflammatory and degenerative synovial architecture.
We work closely with other research groups across Cardiff University.
These include:
- Providing new model organisms for biomedical research: The tale of molluscs, mice and men.
- Investigating the mechanism of the protective role of glutamate receptor antagonists against early onset osteoarthritis following joint destabilisation injuries.
- Can altered cytokine signaling predict the course of inflammatory arthritis?
- Pre-B cell colony enhancing factor (PBEF) in Rheumatoid arthritis.
- Investigating musculoskeletal pain in arthritis using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) .
- Death receptor 3: a regulator of bone turnover and new target for therapy for osteoporosis.
- CD59 - A novel role in bone.
Academic staff

Professor Simon Jones
Dean of Research; Co-Director of Systems Immunity Research Institute; Research Theme Lead - Infection, Inflammation & Immunity
- jonessa@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2068 7325

Professor Anwen Williams
Professor of Experimental Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Director of Organisation and Wellbeing
- williamsas@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2074 4733

Professor Rhian Goodfellow
Personal Chair and C21 Director
- goodfellow@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)1443 443568
Associated staff
A large amount of our research has been generously funded by grants provided by:
We also receive(d) funding from:
- MRC - Medical Research Council
- Wellcome Trust
- William Thomas Morgan Fund
- British Heart Foundation