Miranda Grounds
  1. Current research activities

    2. We have long-standing interests in the regeneration of mature skeletal muscle in animal models of disease with many international collaborators and wide international recognition. This work covers all aspects of the regenerative process (cell and molecular biology) and extends into therapies for Duchenne muscular Dystrophy, including cell and stem cell therapies. We have a major interest in cell and tissue transplantation and immunological problems associate with this. This research has recently been extended into bioengineering of heart tissue to replace damaged heart muscle.

    I established and am Director of the local Tissue Engineering Research Centre (TERC).I also helped establish and am Co-Director of SymbioticA, a dedicated studio/laboratory to facilitate collaborations between scientists and artists. This facility for 'Biological Art & Science research' is unique in the world and has been an unprecedented success http://www.symbiotica.uwa.edu.au/). One key group of artists working with Tissue Culture and Art are leading proponents are actively involved in novel Tissue Engineering research.

  2. Keywords

    skeletal muscle, heart muscle, extracellular matrix, bioscaffolds, stem cells, transplantation, revascularization, tissue engineering.

  3. End-user applications

    • Making replacement heart tissue to replace damaged heart muscle
    • Making replacement skeletal muscle tissue
    • Optomising sECM substrated for attachment and expansion of muscle cells ex vivo
    • Optimizing sources of stem cells (heart & skeletal)
    • Cell therapy
    • Correction of DMD

  4. Key publications

    I. Maley MAL, Davies MJ, Grounds MD. (1995) Extracellular matrix, growth factors, genetics: their influence on cell proliferation and myotube formation in primary cultures of adult mouse skeletal muscle. Exp. Cell Res. 219: 169-179.
    II. Davies MJ, Mitchell CA, Maley MAL, Grounds MD, Harvey AR, Plant GW, Wood DJ, Hong Y, Chirila TV (1997) In vitro asessment of the biological activity of basic fibroblast growth factor released from various polymers and biomatrices. J Biomaterials Applications. 12:31-56.
    III. Grounds MD (1999) Muscle Regeneration: molecular aspects and therapeutic implications. Current Opinion in Neurology. 12: 535-543.
    IV. Smythe GM, Hodgetts SI, Grounds MD. (2000) Immunobiology and the future of Myoblast Transfer Therapy. Molecular Therapy. 1(4): 304 -313.
    V. Grounds MD. (2000) Muscling in on Tissue Engineering. Today’s Life Science 12 (6) : 36-40. www.vLIFEScience.com.au.
    VI. Grounds MD, White J, Rosenthal N, Bogoyevitch M. (2002) The role of stem cells in Skeletal and Cardiac Muscle repair. J Histochem. Cytochem. 50: 589-610.
    VII. White J, Grounds MD (2003) Harnessing the therapeutic potential of myogenic stem cells. (Invited review). Cytotechnology. 41:153-164.

  5. Outreach activities

    I initiated a Tissue Engineering research Centre in Perth in 1999 (TERChttp://www.terc.uwa.edu.au/), I am the co-ordinator of TERC and organised 2 meetings here (in 2000 and 2002): the first of these was associated with a very successful Public Lecture by Prof Joseph Vacanti at UWA that attracted a huge public audience.

    Institute of Advanced Studies (UWA)
    Grounds MD “Tissue Engineering Research Centre (TERC)” Awarded for combined “Science in the Millenium” with Professor David Blair, Physics (2000, $15,000)
    2000 Organised the TERC meeting "Frontiers in Tissue Engineering: West Australian Symposium" on October 5th.
    2002 Organised the TERC meeting "Cottesloe Stem cell and Tissue Engineering Symposium" on November 6th.

    The artists associated with SymbioticA play a major outreach role for discussing all aspects of Tissue Engineering (ethics, technologies etc) – I am Co-Director of SymbioticA

  6. Key organisation membership

    7. Tissue Engineering Society International (TESI)
    Australian tissue engineering interest groups

  7. Early career researcher?

    No.

  8. Young investigator?

    9. No.

  9. Skills and expertise

    • cell biology
    • transplantation immunology
    • matrix biology
    • Co-Director of SymbioticA
    • stem cell work
    • Director of TERC
    • in vivo work with animals
    • Histology skills
    • tissue culture work
    • image analysis skills
    • confocal microscopy
    • strong international collaborators
    • cell transplantation

  10. Specialist equipment and infrastructure

    • Image Analysis Facility with state-of the art microscopes (e.g for live cell imaging) and image capture (This full histological service is now known as Cell Central).
    • Good tissue culture facilities.
    • Surgical suites for animal work.

© 2004

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