I graduated from the University of Wales, Bangor with a BSc Honours degree in Sports Science in 2000. I joined the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery in 2001 and obtained my PhD Mechanical & Metabolic Factors in Osteoarthritis in 2005. At present I am working as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Psychology and Department of Child Health developing a tool to aid diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders.

Research Interests

My main research has been investigating the role of mechanical and chemokine factors in osteoarthritis and how they interact in the regulation of homeostasis in articular cartilage and that these can be modulated by nutritional factors, specifically fatty acids.

My recent work involves developing a tool to aid diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders in children, the main ones we are researching are autism spectrum disorders (ASD), developmental co-ordination disorder (DCD) and attention deficeit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The research involves running a battery of tests that observe gross and fine motor skills, movement co-ordination, imitation and joint attention. To see how well children can imitate motion we record the position of the child’s limbs and observe how long it takes them to notice differences in what they are imitating and how quickly they can react to these changes.

• To determine the response of elderly human articular cartilage explants to static, cyclic or absence of mechanical load in a controlled environment.
• To determine the response of elderly human articular cartilage explants to a combination of mechanical stimuli and an essential growth factor (IGF-1) in a controlled environment.
• To investigate the response of elderly human articular cartilage explants, in medium containing elevated lipid levels, to static, cyclic or absence mechanical load in a controlled environment.
• To investigate and compare transcription profiles of elderly human articular cartilage explants to static, cyclic or absence of mechanical load using microarray technology.
• To validate gene expression from microarray studies by qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
• To determine the effect of arachidonic acid on the regulation of protein and glycosoaminoglycan (GAG) molecules in cartilage by using metabolic radiolabelling.
• To detect changes in adipocytic phenotype of chondrocytes in cartilage sections, previously stimulated with fatty acids, using histochemical and immunohistochemical methods.
• To determine the fat content and fatty acid profiles of bone from OA and OP femoral heads.

Mechanical and metabolic factors in osteoarthritis.
Plumb, M.S. PhD Thesis. University of Aberdeen, 2005.

Plumb, M.S. & Aspden, R.M. Lipids & OA in human joints. Proceedings of Hill’s European Symposium on Osteoarthritis and Joint Health (p 26-31), Invited Speaker, Genoa, Italy, 26th April 2005.

Plumb, M.S., Treon, K. & Aspden, R.M. The effect of mechanical stimulation & IGF-1 on elderly, human articular cartilage matrix biosynthesis in vitro, 2005 (manuscript under review).

Plumb, M.S.& Aspden, R.M. The response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical stimulus in vitro. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2005, 13, 1084-1091.

Plumb, M.S.& Aspden, R.M. High fat content of bone in OA. Lipids in Health & Disease, 2004, 3: 12.

Plumb, M.S.& Aspden, R.M. Fat content and fatty acid profile of OA cancellous bone.vitro. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2003,11 Supplement A, S62-63.

Plumb, M.S.& Aspden, R.M. The response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical stimulus in vitro. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage, 2003,11 Supplement A, S94.

Plumb, M.S. & Aspden, R.M. The response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical stimuli in vitro Oral presentation.at BASEM and BASES Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, Glasgow, 22nd June 2002. Awarded prize for best oral presentation in Sport Science.

Plumb, M.S., Treon, K.T. & Aspden, R.M. The response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical stimuli in vitro and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) in vitro. Journal of Sports Sciences, 2003, 21,330.

Plumb, M.S., Treon, K.T. & Aspden, R.M. The effect of IGF-1 and mechanical load on elderly human articular cartilage (abstract). Oral presentation and Poster. Proceedings of XVIIIth Federation of European Connective Tissue Societies Meeting, Brighton, England, 2002.

Plumb, M.S. & Aspden, R.M. The response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical stimuli in vitro (abstract). Poster presentation. Proceedings of XVIIIth Federation of European Connective Tissue Societies Meeting, Brighton, England, 2002.

Grants

Plumb, M.S. & Aspden, R.M. Tenovous-Scotland. Investigating the response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical loading using gene expression analysis. April, 2003 – March, 2004. £9,940.