Mark Birch

I came to Cambridge in 2014 from Newcastle University where I had been first appointed lecturer in 1998 and senior lecturer in 2007.  Prior to that I had worked in several different roles in academia and industry but all focused on bone and cartilage biology, mechanisms of musculoskeletal disease and potential for novel therapeutic intervention. 

I have been part of several national or multinational research programmes supported by funders that have included Arthritis Research UK, UKRI and the European Commission, and I am currently a co-investigator in the Versus Arthritis Tissue Engineering & Regenerative Therapies Centre.  

I have supervised or co-supervised over 40 MPhil, MD or PhD students to the award of their degree and I act as Postgraduate lead for the Department of Surgery.  

I review research proposals for research councils and charities in the UK and EU, and I have been an expert panel member for EU-funded research programmes focused on multidisciplinary and translational research in regenerative medicine, diagnostics and nanotherapy.  I am also a specialty editor for the Bone & Joint Journal. 

Project/study information

My research lies in understanding the interaction between biomaterials and skeletal cells, and how this can be leveraged to enhance tissue repair and regeneration. More recently, my work has expanded to study the use of cell therapies in orthopaedics, with an emphasis on optimising cell preparation to maximise therapeutic effectiveness.