Thanks to obtaining an FNRS Research Fellow, Anaïs Ledent is completing a PhD dedicated to the bone-cartilage interface.
Anaïs Ledent tells us about her career path and the research topic that led him to obtain a position as a Research Follow at the FRS-FNRS.
Her background and motivations
Anaïs Ledent began her studies in civil engineering at the University of Liège in September 2020. Passionate about mathematics and the biology of the human body – and more particularly about medicine – she gradually turned towards biomedical options while also taking computer science courses. She then enrolled in the Master’s program in Biomedical Civil Engineering in September 2023.
As part of her master’s thesis, Anaïs travelled to Australia from February to May 2025, settling in Melbourne, a city known for its vibrant culture and student life. Through the contacts of her thesis supervisor, Davide Ruffoni, she joined the Bone Cell Biology and Disease research group at the St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, under the supervision of Natalie Sims and Haniyeh Hemmatian. There, she focused on osteons, specific structural units of bone, examining the spatial distribution of calcium and the cellular network within these structures, and how these distributions vary with age.
The aim of her study was to determine whether older individuals produce bone of lower quality than younger individuals, in order to better understand how bone quality is altered and ultimately contribute to the design of improved treatments for osteoporosis.
Anaïs graduated summa cum laude with a Master’s degree in Biomedical Civil Engineering in September 2025, with congratulations from the jury. She was also awarded the Best Master’s Thesis Prize, granted by the company ETEX.
Working in a collaborative research environment during her thesis strongly motivated Anaïs to continue in this direction. Following her graduation, she became an FNRS Research Fellow in October 2025, under the supervision of Davide Ruffoni.
Her research
Anaïs’s doctoral research focuses on the bone–cartilage interface in joints. This interface plays a crucial role in the efficient transmission of mechanical loads between bone and cartilage while preventing structural failure.
It consists of two tissues with very different compositions and mechanical properties: on one side, the subchondral bone, which is stiff and rigid, and on the other, the articular cartilage, which is soft and elastic. These two tissues are separated by a thin layer of calcified cartilage, providing a gradual transition between their properties. This interface is of high biomedical interest, as it is directly involved in joint pathologies such as osteoarthritis. However, its extremely small size and complex structure make it difficult to study, which explains why it is less explored than bone tissue overall.
Both bone and cartilage contain water, with cartilage being much more hydrated than bone. However, most studies are conducted on dehydrated samples, as this stabilizes the tissue and makes experiments easier and more reproducible. Yet, water contributes to the viscoelastic behavior of both tissues, and its removal can alter their mechanical properties, potentially affecting experimental results.
In this context, a first objective of Anaïs’s doctoral research is to investigate the effect of water content on the viscoelastic behavior of the interface, by gradually modulating the degree of dehydration in the samples. A second objective is to examine the impact of physiological loading on the mechanical properties of the interface. In vivo, joints are subjected to mechanical loads that deform their structures at multiple scales. Anaïs aims to determine whether these deformations influence the interface’s mechanical properties.
These studies will be carried out using the nanoindentation machine available at the Mechanical of Biological and Bioinspired Materials laboratory at the University of Liège.
