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Dr Vanessa Sharp

Lecturer in Nutrition and Human Health

Phone
+44 (0)1473 338202
Email
v.sharp@uos.ac.uk
School/Directorate
School of Allied Health Sciences
Vanessa Sharp staff profile photo

Vanessa is a Lecturer in Nutrition and Human Health within Life Sciences in the School of Allied Health Sciences, leading modules across BSc (Hons) Nutrition and Human Health, BSc (Hons) Biomedical Science and BSc (Hons) Biological Science courses at all levels.

Vanessa is currently the module leader for Foundations of Anatomy and Physiology (Foundation Year), Human Physiology 1 and 2 (Level 4), Immunology (Level 5) and Clinical Nutrition (Level 6).

Having already attained a BSc (Hons) in Biomedical Science, Vanessa completed her MSc and PhD, both in Regenerative Medicine, at the University of Suffolk. 

Vanessa’s research interests lie in Regenerative Medicine, specifically stem cells and osteoarthritis (OA). During her PhD, she established the first induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines at the University of Suffolk, thereby creating a stem cell research tool for the University’s scholars. She also derived OA-iPSCs from an osteoarthritis (OA) cell line, which has the potential to be validated as an OA in vitro cellular disease model with continued research. This work was accompanied by the identification of potential OA biomarkers by an extensive systematic review and meta-analysis. 

PhD Title: “Developing a Future Tool for Osteoarthritis (OA) Disease Modelling: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) Derived from Healthy and OA Human Fibroblast-Like Synoviocytes (HFLS), Informed by A Meta-Analysis of OA Synovial Biomarkers.”

Outside of academia, Vanessa has broad experience within the medical device and in vitro diagnostic industries, including technical support, regulatory affairs and quality assurance.

Vanessa presented posters of her PhD research at the 2022 Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) conference and the 2023 International Combined Orthopaedic Research Societies (ICORS) conference in Edinburgh, where she was awarded the prize of “Best Poster for New Investigator in Biology” by the European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS).

Nutrition Society

European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS)

Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI)

International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)

Abstracts:

  • Sharp, V. J. and Masieri, F. F. (2022) ‘Synovial Biomarkers in Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis’, Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 30, p. S125. doi: 10.1016/J.JOCA.2022.02.159.
  • Sharp, V. J. et al. (2023) ‘A Meta-Analysis of Osteoarthritis Synovial Biomarkers’, Orthopaedic Proceedings, 105-B(SUPP_9), pp. 66–66. doi: 10.1302/1358-992X.2023.9.066.
  • Sharp, V. J., Bury, N. R. and Masieri, F. F. (2023) ‘Episomal Vector-Based Generation of iPSC Lines from Healthy and Osteoarthritis (OA) Patient Synoviocytes for OA Modelling in vitro’, Orthopaedic Proceedings, 105-B(SUPP_9), pp. 67–67. doi: 10.1302/1358-992X.2023.9.067.