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Staff Profile

Dr Louise Reynard

Lecturer

Background

Louise Reynard graduated from the University of Cambridge with a MA Cantab in Natural Sciences, specialising in Genetics. She completed her PhD studies in Developmental Genetics at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research. Louise joined Newcastle University in 2009 when she began her postdoctoral training with Professor John Loughlin. She has now been promoted to Lecturer.

Dr Reynard’s research is focused on the functional characterisation of OA susceptibility loci that have been identified by the arcOGEN consortium. Elucidating the molecular mechanisms that underlie the susceptibility mediated by these genes will increase our understanding of OA etiology, potentially aid diagnosis and treatment, and will suggest relevant targets for therapeutic investigation. Louise is also interested in the molecular interplay between genetics and epigenetics in OA susceptibility, in particular, how DNA methylation can modulate the effect of genetic variation on disease penetrance and severity.

As a STEMNET Ambassador, Louise has spoken about her research at several public events including two events at the Centre for Life museum in Newcastle organised by the Xplore Health consortium funded by the European commission. She supervises several PhD students and postdoctoral scientists within Professor Loughlin’s group. Louise’s research is funded by Arthritis Research UK, the Dr William Harker Foundation, and the JGW Patterson Foundation. She is a member of the MRC-ARUK Centre for Integrated Research into Musculoskeletal Ageing and of the European Commission FP7 D-Board consortium that aims to identify and validate novel biomarkers of OA.

Publications

  • Thalayasingam N, Nair N, Skelton AJ, Massey J, Anderson AE, Clark AD, Diboll J, Lendrem DW, Reynard LN, Cordell HJ, Eyre S, Isaacs JD, Barton A, Pratt AG. CD4+ and B lymphocyte expression quantitative traits at rheumatoid arthritis risk loci in untreated early arthritis: implications for causal gene identification. Arthritis Rheumatol 2017 [Epub ahead of print].
  • Ratnayake M, Tselepi M, Bloxham R, Plöger F, Reynard LN, Loughlin J. A consistent and potentially exploitable response during chondrogenesis of mesenchymal stem cells from osteoarthritis patients to the protein encoded by the susceptibility gene GDF5. PLoS One. 2017 May 8;12(5):e0176523
  • Styrkarsdottir U, Helgason H, Sigurdsson A, Norddahl GL, Agustsdottir AB, Reynard LN, Villalvilla A, Halldorsson GH, Jonasdottir A, Magnusdottir A, Oddson A, Sulem G, Zink F, Sveinbjornsson G, Helgason A, Johannsdottir HS, Helgadottir A, Stefansson H, Gretarsdottir S, Rafnar T, Almdahl IS, Brækhus A, Fladby T, Selbæk G, Hosseinpanah F, Azizi F, Koh JM, Tang NLS, Danesphour M, Mayordomo J, Welt C, Braund PS, Samani NJ, Kiemeney L, Lohmander LS, Christiansen C,  Andreassen OA, arcOGEN consortium, Magnusson O, Masson G, Kong A, Jonsdottir I, Gudbjartsson D, Sulem P, Jonsson H, Loughlin J, Ingvarsson T, Thorsteinsdottir U, Stefansson K. Whole genome sequencing finds rare genotypes in COMP and CHADL associated with high risk of hip osteoarthritis. Nat Genet. 2017 May;49(5):801-805.
  • Reynard LN, Ratnayake M, Santibanez-Koref  M and Loughlin J. Functional characterisation of the osteoarthritis susceptibility mapping to CHST11. PLoS ONE 11(7):e0159024.
  • Reynard LN. Analysis of genetics and DNA methylation in osteoarthritis: what have we learnt from the disease? Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2017 Feb;62:57-66
  • Meulenbelt IM, Bhutani N, den Hollander W, Gay S, Opperman U, Reynard LN, Skelton AJ, Young DA, Beir F, Loughlin J. The first international workshop on the epigenetics of osteoarthritis. Connect Tissue Res 2016 30:1-12
  • Dang TS, Willet JD, Griffin HR, Morgan NV, O'Boyle G, Arkwright PD, Hughes SM, Abinun M, Tee LJ, Barge D, Engelhardt KR, Jackson M, Cant AJ, Maher ER, Koref MS, Reynard LN, Ali S, Hambleton S. Defective Leukocyte Adhesion and Chemotaxis Contributes to Combined Immunodeficiency in Humans with Autosomal Recessive MST1 Deficiency. J Clin Immunol. 2016 Feb;36(2):117-22.
  • Shepherd C, Skelton AJ, Rushton MD, Reynard LN, Loughlin J. Expression analysis of the osteoarthritis genetic susceptibility locus mapping to an intron of the MCF2L gene and marked by the polymorphism rs11842874. BMC Med genet. 2015 16(1):108.
  • Rushton MD1, Reynard LN1, Young DA, Shepherd C, Darlay R, Cordell H, Loughlin J. Methylation quantitive trait locus (meQLT) analysis of osteoarthritis links epigenetics with genetic risk. Hum Mol Genet. 2015 24(25):7432
  • Johnson K, Reynard LN, Loughlin J. Functional characterisation of the osteoarthritis susceptibility locus at chromosome 6q14.1 marked by the polymorphism rs9350591. BMC Medical Genetics 2015 16(1):81-44.
  • Rogers E, Reynard LN, Loughlin J. The role of inflammation-related genes in osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2015 23(11):1933-8
  • Gee F, Rushton MD, Loughlin J, Reynard LN. The osteoarthritis susceptibility that maps to chromosome 20q13 correlates with an expression quantitative trait locus operating on NCOA3 and with functional variation at the polymorphism rs116855380. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015 67(11):2923-32
  • Rushton MD, Young DA, Loughlin J, Reynard LN. Differential DNA methylation and expression of inflammatory and zinc transporter genes defines sub-groups of osteoarthritis hip patients. Ann Rheum Dis. 2015 74(9):1778.
  • Loughlin J, Reynard LN. Osteoarthritis: Epigenetics of articular cartilage in knee and hip OA. Nat Rev Rheumatol 2015 Jan;11(1):6-7.
  • Lu W, Zhang Y, McDonald DO, Jing H, Carroll B, Robertson N, Zhang Q, Griffin H, Sanderson S, Lakey J, Morgan N, Reynard LN, Zheng L, Murdock HM, Turvey SE, Hackett SJ, Prestidge T, Hall JM, Cant AJ, Matthews HF, Santibanez-Koref MF, Simon AK, Korolchuk VI, Lenardo MJ, Hambleton S and Su HC. Dual proteolytic pathways govern glycolysis and immune competence. Cell 2014;159(7):1578-90.
  • Reynard LN, Bui C, Syddall CM and Loughlin J. CpG methylation regulates allelic expression of GDF5 by modulating binding of SP1 and SP3 repressor proteins to the osteoarthritis SNP rs143383. Hum Genet 2014;133(8):1059-73.
  • Rushton MD, Reynard LN, Barter MJ, Refaie R, Rankin KS, Young DA and Loughlin J. Characterization of the cartilage DNA methylome in knee and hip osteoarthritis. Arthritis Rheumatol 2014;66(9):2450-60.
  • Raine EV, Reynard LN, van der Laar IM, Bertoli-Avelia AM, and Loughlin J. Identification and analysis of a SMAD3 cis-acting eQTL operating in primary osteoarthritis and in the aneurysms and osteoarthritis syndrome. Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2014;22(5):698-705.
  • Gee F, Clubbs CF, Raine EV, Reynard LN and Loughlin J. Allelic expression analysis of the osteoarthritis susceptibility locus that maps to chromosome 3p21 reveals cis-acting eQTLs at GNL3 and SPCS1. BMC Med Genet 2014;15(1):53.
  • Syddall CM, Reynard LN, Young DA and Loughlin J. The identification of trans-acting factors that regulate the expression of GDF5 via the osteoarthritis susceptibility SNP rs143383. PLoS Genet 2013; 9(6).
  • Raine EV, Dodd AW, Reynard LN and Loughlin J. Allelic expression analysis of the osteoarthritis susceptibility gene COL11A1 in human joint tissues. BMC Musculoskelet Disord 2013 Mar 8;14:85
  • Reynard LN and Loughlin J. Insights from human genetic studies into the cellular and molecular switches involved in osteoarthritis etiology. Nature Reviews Rheumatology. 2013 9(10):573-83
  • Reynard LN and Loughlin J. The genetics and functional analysis of primary osteoarthritis susceptibility. Expert Rev Mol Med. 2013 Feb 18;15.
  • Raine E, Wreglesworth N, Dodd A, Reynard LN and Loughlin J. Gene expression analysis reveals HBP1 as a key target for the osteoarthritis susceptibility locus that maps to chromosome 7q22. Ann Rheum Dis.2012 Dec; 71(12):2020-7.
  • Bui C, Barter MJ, Scott JL, Xu Y, Galler M, Reynard LN, Rowan AD and Young DA. cAMP response element-binding (CREB) recruitment following a specific CpG demethylation leads to the elevated expression of the matrix metalloproteinase 13 in human articular chondrocytes and osteoarthritis. FASEB J. 2012 Jul;26(7):300-11.
  • Ratnayake M, Reynard LN, Raine EV, Santibanez-Koref M and Loughlin J. Allelic expression analysis of the osteoarthritis susceptibility locus that maps to MICAL3.  BMC Med Genet. 2012 Mar 2;13(1):12
  • Reynard LN and Loughlin J. Genetics and epigenetics of osteoarthritis. Maturitas. 2012 March;71(3):200-4.
  • Dickinson RE, Griffin H, Bigley V, Reynard LN, Hussain R, Haniffa M, Lakey JH, Rahman T, Wang XN, McGovern N, Pagan S, Cookson S, McDonald D, Chua I, Wallis J, Cant A, Wright M, Keavney B, Chinnery PF, Loughlin J, Hambleton S, Santibanez-Koref M and Collin M. Exome sequencing identifies GATA-2 mutation as the cause of dendritic cell, monocyte, B and NK lymphoid deficiency. Blood. 2011 Sep 8;118(10):2656-8.
  • Reynard LN, Bui C, Canty-Laid EG, Young DA and Loughlin J. Expression of the osteoarthritis-associated gene GDF5 is modulated epigenetically by DNA methylation. Hum Mol Genet 2011;20(September(17)):3450-60.
  • Dodd AW, Rodriguez-Fontenla C, Calaza M, Carr A, Gomez-Reino JJ, Tsezou A, Reynard LN, Gonzalez A and Loughlin J. Deep sequencing of GDF5 reveals the absence of rare variants at this important osteoarthritis susceptibility locus. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2011 Apr;19(4):430-4.

 

Publications