Dr Emma Wilson
Senior Lecturer
Emma is an active researcher publishing in areas focusing on developing therapies for osteoarthritis with collaborators at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital; musculoskeletal ageing with collaborators at CIMA (Centre for Integrated Musculoskeletal Ageing) at Liverpool University and drug development for drug-induced bone loss with collaborators at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and the Centre for Inherited Neuromuscular disease in Oswestry.
Emma’s first experience of research came from a full year sandwich placement during her undergraduate degree at the prestigious Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, where she worked on novel projects aimed at manipulating the extracellular matrix to prevent new blood vessel growth to tumours to prevent metastasis. After completing a PhD investigating ways to manipulate the cells of bone, Emma has spent more than 10 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester, Keele University and for the NHS involved in various clinically relevant research, before joining Chester Medical School in 2016.
Emma has a keen interest in teaching and learning and has qualifications for teaching from key stage 3 up to postgraduate level.
Emma is Programme Leader for MSc in Orthopaedics and is the module leader for several modules in postgraduate medicine. In addition, Emma supervises and supports dissertation students at masters level and PhD students, both in Chester and in collaboration with other institutions.
Emma’s research interests are focused on the musculoskeletal system in ageing, injury, and in response to genetic disease and/or drug-treatment. She is currently involved in collaborative research projects with the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease at the University of Liverpool, primarily investigating how the translation of proteins is affected in ageing musculoskeletal tissues; the Tissue Engineering Centre at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital, investigating cartilage degeneration and the reason for failure of stem cell therapies to repair cartilage; the Centre of Inherited Neuromuscular Disorders in Oswestry, developing novel mononclonal antibodies to specific muscular dystrophies and investigating the mode of action of potential drug targets to treat spinal muscular atrophy; and the Rheumatology and Metabolic medicine group (RJAH NHS trust) investigating the effects of anti-epilepsy drugs on bone metabolism and the effect of stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
Hyland, M., Mennan, C., Wilson, E., Clayton, A., Kehoe, O (2020). Pro-Inflammatory priming of umbilical cord mesenchymal stromal cells alters the protein cargo of their extracellular vesicles. Cells. In press.
Soltic D, Shorrock HK, Allardyce H, Wilson EL, Holt I, Synowsky SA, Shirran SL, Parson SH, Gillingwater TH, Fuller HR (2019). Lamin A/C dysregulation contributes to cardiac pathology in a mouse model of severe spinal muscular atrophy. Human Molecular Genetics, 28(21), 3515-3527.
Hulme CH, Wilson EL, Fuller HR, Roberts S, Richardson JB, Gallacher P, Peffers MJ, Shirran SL, Botting CH and Wright KT (2018) Two independent proteomic approaches provide a comprehensive analysis of the synovial fluid proteome in response to autologous chondrocyte implantation. Arthritis Research and Therapy, 20(1):87.
Wilson E.L*, Hulme C.H*; Peffers M.J; Roberts S; Simpson D.M; Richardson J.B; Gallacher P and Wright K.T (2017) Autologous chondrocyte implantation-derived synovial fluids display distinct responder and non-responder proteomic profiles. Arthritis Research & Therapy, 19(1), 150. DOI: 10.1186/s13075-017-1336-7.
Wilson E.L,; Garton M and Fuller H.R (2016) Anti-epileptic drugs and bone loss: phenytoin reduces pro-collagen I and alters the electrophoretic mobility of osteonectin in cultured bone cells. Epilepsy Research, 122, 97-101.
Humphrey E.L, Lacey E, Le LT, Feng L, Sciandra F, Morris CR, Hewitt JE, Holt I, Brancaccio A, Barresi R, Sewry CA, Brown SC and Morris GE (2015) A new monoclonal antibody DAG-6F4 against human alpha-dystroglycan reveals reduced core protein in some, but not all dystroglycanopathy patients. Neuromuscular Disorders, 25(1) 32-42.
Humphrey E.L, Morris GE, Fuller HR (2013) Valproate reduces collagen and osteonectin in cultured bone cells. Epilepsy Research, 106(3) 446-50.
BSc(Hons) Genetics and Molecular Biology -University of Wolverhampton
PhD University of Liverpool
PGCE (Secondary education) University of Chester
PGcert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education University of Chester