Caroline Ospelt

Prof. Dr. Caroline Ospelt leads the Research Group at the Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Zurich, focusing on the molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of synovial fibroblasts in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Her work bridges innate immunity, non-coding RNA, and joint-specific pathogenesis.

• Professor, University Hospital Zurich
• Director, Center of Experimental Rheumatology

Research Interests

• Elucidating pattern-recognition receptor activation in RA synovial fibroblasts
• Investigating microRNA and long non-coding RNA roles in RA progression
• Mapping epigenetic changes (histone acetylation, DNA methylation) in stromal cells
• Decoding joint-specific transcriptional regulators (HOX genes) in arthritis

Publications span functional genomics, RA heritability, and epigenetic diversity of synovial fibroblasts, with recent emphasis on non-coding RNA and GWAS integration.

Technical Expertise: Primary cell culture, gene/protein expression analysis, functional assays (migration, invasion), ChIP, bisulfite sequencing, and scRNAseq.