Professor Chantal Chenu
PhD, HDR
Professor
Department: Comparative Biomedical Sciences
Campus: Camden
Research Groups: Musculoskeletal Biology, CPCS (Research Programme)
Research Centres: MicroCT
Chantal Chenu is a Professor in Skeletal Biology in Comparative Biomedical Sciences. Her research is focused on the regulatory and repair mechanisms of bone. She is also interested in the mechanisms leading to bone pain.
Chantal graduated from Lyon University with a degree in Biochemistry. She conducted her PhD research in Professor Dave Roodman‘s laboratory (San Antonio, TX, USA) on osteoclast differentiation from bone marrow. She then joined Professor Pierre Delmas’s group in Lyon (INSERM Unit 403, Lyon, France) where her work focused on the biochemical and functional characterization of several bone matrix proteins.
She obtained a senior research position with INSERM France in 1991 and started her own research group aimed at investigating the role of the nervous system in the control of bone development and turnover. She moved to the Royal Veterinary College in 2003 and obtained in 2006 a Senior Lectureship position in the department of Veterinary Basic Sciences at the RVC. She was appointed to a Professorship in 2017.
Chantal’s research integrates a range of approaches (animal models, genetic manipulation, in vitro bone cell culture models) to investigate the mechanisms by which skeletal innervation and angiogenesis regulate bone development, remodelling and repair. Her current research is principally focused on examining the mechanisms driving skeletal pain and aiming to develop strategies to decrease it. She is part of the "European Training Network on Bone Pain" (www.bonepain.eu.), which aims at deciphering the mechanisms of bone pain and develop new medicines.
Chantal's research is funded by the European Union, Wellcome Trust, Arthritis Research UK, Orthopeadic Research UK, Joint Action Research and the Society for Endocrinology (www.endocrinology.org/).
Chantal has served on the Editorial Board of Journal of Bone and Mineral Research and the Editorial board of J of Endocrinology and J of Molecular Endocrinology. She is a board member of the International Society for Fracture Repair (www.fractures.com/) and is a Review Editor of Frontiers in Bone Research. .
Recent publications
Li X, Martinez Ramos S, Ter Heedge F, Pitsillides A, Bou-Gharios G, Poulet B, Chenu C. Expression of semaphorin-3A in the joint and role in osteoarthritis. J Cell Biochem Funct 2024, 42(3):e4012.
Sung J, Kate R. Barratt KR, Pederson SM, Chenu C, Reichert I, Atkins GJ, Anderson PH, Smitham PJ. Unbiased Gene Expression Analysis of the Delayed Fracture Healing Observed in Zucker Diabetic Fatty Rats. Bone& Joint Research, 2023, 12(10):657-666.
Hansen R, Chenu C, Sofat N, Pitsillides A. Bone marrow lesions: plugging the holes in our knowledge using animals. Nature Reviews Rheumatology, 2023,19(7): 429-445.
Hopkinson M, Jones G, Evans L, Gohin S, Magnusdottir R, Salmon P, Chenu C, Meeson R, Javaheri B, Pitsillides AA. A new method for segmentation and analysis of bone callus in rodent fracture models using micro-CT. J Orthop Res, 2023, 41(8): 1717-1728.
Radulescu A, White FA, Chenu C. What did we learn about fracture pain from animal models? J Pain Res, 2022, 15: 2845-2856.
Magnusdottir R, Gohin S, Ter Heegde F, Hopkinson M, McNally IF, Fisher A, Upton N, Billinton A, Chenu C. Fracture-induced pain-like behaviours in a femoral fracture mouse model. Osteoporosis Int, 2021, 32(11): 2347-2359.
Ter Heegde F, Luiz AP, Santana-Varela S, Magnúsdóttir R, Hopkinson M, Chang Y, Poulet B, Fowkes RC, Wood JN, Chenu C. Osteoarthritis-related nociceptive behaviour following mechanical joint loading correlates with cartilage damage. Osteoarthritis Cartilage. 2020, Mar;28(3):383-395.
Gohin S, Javaheri B, Hopkinson M, Pitsillides AA, Arnett TR, Chenu C. Applied mechanical loading to mouse hindlimb acutely increases skeletal perfusion and chronically enhanced vascular porosity. J Appl Physiol, 2020, 128(4): 838-846.
Ter Heegde F, Luiz AP, Santana-Varela S, Chessell IP, Welsh F, Wood JN, Chenu C. Noninvasive Mechanical Joint Loading as an Alternative Model for Osteoarthritic Pain. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2019,71(7): 1078-1088.
Chantal plays an active teaching role within the college lecturing on BSc Bioveterinary Science and Graduate & Transfer courses. She also teaches at the Institute of Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Science at UCL.
She is also the Chair of the Research Degrees Committee at the RVC.
Board member of the French Society for the Biology of Mineralised Tissues; 1997 Co-founder of the French Society for the Biology of Mineralised Tissues; Board Member of the Bloomsbury Centre for Skeletal Research; Board member of the International Society for Fracture Repair (this society amalgamated with the Orthopaedic Research Society in 2017); European Calcified Tissue Society review panel member for Grants and Awards, Member of the review panel for the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research young investigator travel grants awards