Our lab attended the Orthopaedic Research Society's 2026 Meeting and it was a huge success -- special shout out to our undergrad Anna Fonda who received an ORS Undergraduate Travel Award (pictured with fellow awardee, Kat). sites.wustl.edu/jointcrossta...

🧪 Today marks ONE YEAR since I started the Joint Crosstalk Lab at WashU. Continuing a tradition begun by my postdoc mentor Kurt Hankenson, we held our inaugural "State of the Lab". We reflected on victories and challenges from the past year, and strategized for the year to come.

What next? The obvious answers are 'Humans' and 'Spatial' -- so stay tuned!

We also provide useful gene markers for distinguishing subsets of mouse synovial fibroblasts, and we hope our detailed cluster characterizations will be useful for others in the field, and for harmonizing terminology when talking about these cells...

⭐ Divergent fibroblast responses depending on the nature of the joint injury
⭐ Lining fibroblasts (FLS) and 'Perturbed-state fibroblasts' (PSF) were most dynamic
⭐ PSFs are highly versatile cells that are proliferative, multipotent, and may underpin key OA pathologies ...

What ultimately grew out of this collaboration were some fascinating insights into synovial fibroblasts - their distinct flavors, lineages, and dynamics following joint injury (DMM, ACLR, JSI)...

This work was a collaborative venture between Tristan Maerz's group and Cosimo De Bari's group, led by myself and co-first author Fraser Collins. We were originally motivated to harmonize the sea of single-cell transcriptomic data that now exists in the arthritis literature...

📜New collaborative paper on synovial fibroblast dynamics!

"Synovial fibroblast responses to different types of injury resulting in cartilage repair or osteoarthritis" lnkd.in/gSNQrU-s

Reflecting at the end of 2025. Having this wonderful team is part of the reason why starting my lab @ WashU has been such a joy. I love seeing great teamwork and the discoveries that flow from it. Excited for 2026! (pic feat. @brianwskim.bsky.social visiting from @kollinginstitute.bsky.social)

Undergrads participate in WashU Research Symposium On Friday November 7th, three Knights Lab undergraduates participated in WashU’s Fall Undergrad Research Symposium.

Last week, three of our undergrads presented their research at the WashU Fall Undergrad Research Symposium. Congratulations to Evan, Eesha, and Julia -- keep up the great work! sites.wustl.edu/jointcrossta...

And second - our postdoc Tong Yang has been accepted into the WashU Center of Regenerative Medicine’s Distinguished Postdoctoral Scholars Program - aimed at training tomorrow's leaders in regenerative medicine. Well done, Tong!! Go team!

Two pieces of exciting lab news today! First - our postbacc Izzy Smith received the Rita Levi-Montalcini Award for Best Poster Presentation at the recent WashU DevBio/Regenerative Med retreat. Congrats Izzy!! sites.wustl.edu/jointcrossta...

Rheumatology Research Foundation Funding We are very pleased to share that the Knights Lab has received funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation . The lab will receive $100,000 to better understand how, after a joint injury, the …

We're pleased to receive funding from the Rheumatology Research Foundation @rheumresearch.bsky.social so we can unravel the onset and persistence of synovial fibrosis in joint disease - to block it before it sets in! Fascinating biology that we hope will unlock future treatments in the clinic.

I had tons of fun visiting the University of Iowa this week in Iowa City, interacting with colleagues and trainees in Immunology and Orthopaedics. Met wonderful people and was lucky to see their amazing facilities. Thanks especially to Karen Cyndari!

🪃 Boomerang Tour Pt. 4 — final leg of the trip attending the #ICORS2025 conference in Adelaide. Great people and great research - got to share some of my work too. Thanks again to @asbmbaus.bsky.social for bringing me down under. Until next time!

If you are at #ICORS2025🇦🇺🦘, I’d love to see you at my talk in the OA Molecular Biology session starting at 11:15a today, Oct 8th! I’m also super excited to be sharing the session with my friend and fellow UMich lab alum, @jointcrosstalk.bsky.social !

🪃 Boomerang Tour Pt. 3 — it was such a treat to be back in Sydney at UNSW @unswbabs.bsky.social Reconnecting with old friends and colleagues - fond memories.

Extra special that you could present the award and chair the session, Kate!

Thank you to all of our plenary speakers for sharing your incredible research with us at #ASBMB2025! @nanigrotjahn.bsky.social @ajknights7.bsky.social Michelle Haber and Randal Halfmann. We have loved having you all in Brisbane and hearing about your labs awesome work! 🦠🧬🧪🧫🔬

🪃 Boomerang Tour Pt. 2 — honored to receive the ASBMB Boomerang Award @asbmbaus.bsky.social This award has given me the opportunity to ‘return’ to Australia to share my work and meet great people at various venues around the country - including the ASBMB2025 meeting here in Brisbane

🪃 Boomerang Tour Pt. 1 — had an amazing day at the Translational Research Institute/Mater Research in Brisbane, sharing my work and talking science + collaboration. Lucky to also be joined by my sisters, Emily and Grace

Welcome to the newest additions to our growing team — Evan, and two familiar faces from Michigan, Luke and Izzy! Very excited to have you all on board and to see you learn and grow 💪🏼

Exciting times in the lab: BME undergrad Anna presented her research project on the innate-adaptive immune interface in OA - very proud of her! And we were lucky to host newly-minted Dr Lindsey Lammlin @zlammlin.bsky.social at WashU and show her around St Louis 🍻🦀

CXCL16 mediates nociception and inflammation in murine post-traumatic osteoarthritis This study investigates the role of the chemokine CXCL16 and its receptor, CXCR6, in post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) and joint nociception, highlighting the potential of targeting the CXCL16-CXCR...

I’m happy to share a recent pre-print of my PhD work looking at the role of CXCL16 in murine joint pain and inflammation! 🐭 If you missed it yesterday, come find me today at #OARSI2025 🇰🇷 poster 614 and we can chat about this exciting study! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fantastic time at my first OARSI meeting last week in Incheon, South Korea 🇰🇷 Highlights were sessions on omics, sex differences, networking…(and a sneaky Coldplay concert!). Lots of fresh ideas and motivation!

Come check out work from the Maerz Lab at OARSI 2025! #OARSI2025 🇰🇷

Ready to kick off OARSI 2025 in Incheon, Korea! Starting the meeting with a terrific workshop on Sex Differences in OA. Excited for a great conference! #OARSI2025

A standardized, open-source, portable model for noninvasive joint injury in mice Preclinical models of osteoarthritis (OA) are crucial for the study of disease mechanisms and for the development of critically-needed disease-modifying therapeutics. While surgical OA models, such as the destabilization of the medial meniscus (DMM), have been the gold standard in the field for decades, noninvasive joint loading-based models have increased in popularity and utility. To facilitate standardization of the noninvasive anterior cruciate ligament rupture (ACLR) model in mice, we present the Mobile Joint-Injury Operator (MoJO) - an open-source protocol with accompanying fixtures and data, designed for a low-cost, commercially-available, portable uniaxial testing system with a small footprint. We provide 3d-printable fixture designs and a rapid, highly-repeatable ACLR-mediated joint injury protocol that results in the expected post-traumatic osteoarthritis phenotype in male and female C56Bl/6 mice. We then describe the expected mechanical data from the injury procedure and offer various troubleshooting strategies. Finally, we summarize the resultant PTOA phenotype by knee hyperalgesia testing, μCT imaging, flow cytometry, and histological assessment. Increased standardization of this model is a critical aspect of the overall refinement of animal models of OA. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Ending the week with a new Maerz lab preprint! @maerzlab.bsky.social

We present an open source protocol for the ACLR model, with designs for 3D printable fixtures, QC and analysis codes, troubleshooting tips, representative data, and expected phenotyping outcomes.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I will be at ORS @orssociety.bsky.social in Phoenix this week - so if you’re there too, I would love to catch up!

And we are hiring at all levels! If you are passionate about any of the following, please get in touch — tissue crosstalk, arthritis, immunology, fat, macrophages, fibroblasts, multi-omics, Wnt signaling, gene regulation, and much more… www.jointcrosstalk.com