Biography
Professor Sarah Snelling studied Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry at St Catherine's College Oxford, and has a DPhil in Musculoskeletal Science from the University of Oxford.
When musculoskeletal tissues become critically damaged by disease or injury surgery pharmacologic treatments are limited or non-existent, and surgery is often the only option. Despite improvements in surgical techniques, it is common for repairs to fail either structurally or biologically. Without a full understanding of the cellular basis of tissue health and disease, effective pharmacologic, surgical or combined treatment strategies will remain elusive.
Sarah utilises next generation sequencing approaches to interrogate and characterise the cellular and molecular signatures of healthy and diseased musculoskeletal tissues including tendon, ligament and bone. These signatures enable the identification of key cell types and molecules that drive tissue health and disease, and the response of our tissues to surgery. The tissue atlases delivered by Sarah's team also provide essential metrics for evaluation and testing of pharmacologic and implant-based surgical treatments.
Diseases studied by Sarah's group include tendinopathies, ligament disease, joint infection, osteoarthritis and fracture.
Selected Publications
- Mimpen J, Baldwin M, Paul C, Ramos-Mucci L, Kurjan A, Cohen C, Sharma S, Chevalier M, Hulley PA, McMaster J, Titchener A, Martin A, Costa M, Gwilym SE, Cribbs AP, Snelling SJB. Exploring cellular changes in ruptured human quadriceps tendons at single-cell resolution. J Physiol. 2025. doi: 10.1113/JP287812
Raza I, Mimpen J, Snelling S. Defining the extracellular matrix in non-cartilage soft tissues in osteoarthritis – a systematic review. JOR. 2024 13(12):703-715.
Boakye Serebour, T., Cribbs, A.P., Baldwin, M.J., Masimirembwa C., Chikwambi, Z., Kerasidou, A., Snelling, S.J.B. Overcoming barriers to single-cell RNA sequencing adoption in low- and middle-income countries. Eur J Hum Genet 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-024-01564-4
Single nucleus and spatial transcriptomic profiling of human healthy hamstring tendon. Mimpen JY., Ramos-Mucci L., Paul C., Kurjan A., Hulley P., Ikwuanusi C., Gwilym S., Baldwin MJ., Cribbs AP., Snelling SJB. Single nucleus and spatial transcriptomic profiling of healthy human hamstring tendon. The FASEB Journal. 2024; 38:e23629. doi:10.1096/fj.202300601RRR
Baldwin M, Buckley CD, Guilak F, Cribbs AP, Snelling S. A roadmap for delivering a musculoskeletal cell atlas. Nature Reviews Rheumatology 2023, 19(11):738-752.
Mimpen JY, Hedley R, Ridley A, Baldwin MJ, Windell D, Bhalla A, Ramos-Mucci L, Buckley CD, Coles MC, Alvand A, Price AJ, Carr AJ, Dakin SG, Snelling SJB. Cellular characterisation of advanced osteoarthritis knee synovium. Arthritis Res Ther. 2023 23;25(1):154. doi: 10.1186/s13075-023-03110-x.
Ramos-Mucci L, Sarmiento P, Little D, Snelling S. Research Perspectives - Pipelines to Human Tendon Transcriptomics. J Orthop Res. 2022. doi: 10.1002/jor.25315
Baldwin MJ, Mimpen JY, Cribbs AP, Stace E, Philpott M, Dakin SG, Carr AJ, Snelling SJ. Electrospun Scaffold Micro-Architecture Induces an Activated Transcriptional Phenotype within Tendon Fibroblasts. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2021.795748
Positions
- Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences
- Associate Professor, Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Science
Subjects
- Biomedical Sciences
