My research group is interested in understanding the cellular and molecular basis of bone and cartilage development, during embryonic development as well as in adult bone/cartilage remodelling disorders and skeletal neoplasia. Current experiments are focusing on the role of the c-Fos proto-oncogene/AP-1 transcription factor and Rho GTPase signalling in the differentiation, growth control and transformation of osteoblasts, osteoclasts and chondrocytes. Specific aspects include the analysis of cell cycle control, the role of BMPs and FGFs in osteo/chondrogenesis, and bacterial protein toxins as tools to perturb specific signalling pathways in osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Molecular and cellular approaches, including generating functional bone cell populations from embryonic stem cells, are combined with functional gain- and loss-of function studies using transgenic/knock-out animal technology, which will help elucidate the molecular basis of bone/cartilage disorders and skeletal cancers.

Agi Grigoriadis undertook his undergraduate and graduate training at the University of Toronto, Canada, obtaining his PhD in 1989 in the Department of Pharmacology and the Medical Research Centre (MRC) Group in Periodontal Physiology, studying with Professor Jane Aubin and Professor Johan Heersche. He then received an MRC Canada fellowship to work as a postdoctoral fellow at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria, in the laboratory of Professor Erwin Wagner from 1989-1994. In 1994, he joined King’s College London (initially UMDS, Guy’s Hospital) as a lecturer in the Dental Institute, became senior lecturer in 1999, reader in 2007 and is currently professor of bone and cartilage cell biology.