FOOTBALL legend Alan Shearer has launched the opening of a pioneering new centre aimed at helping people who have suffered joint damage due to osteoarthritis.

Newcastle University and Arthritis Research UK have collaborated to spearhead a £6m experimental tissue engineering centre which hopes to regenerate bone and cartilage by using patients’ own stem cells to repair any damage caused by the degenerative joint disease.

Yesterday Shearer was at the university’s Beehive building to unveil a plaque marking the beginning of the groundbreaking research that will take place in the region.

Speaking at the event, the former Newcastle United captain said: “Launching this research centre is my way of trying to give something back to the region.

“When you look at what fantastic facilities we have here in the North East’s hospitals and universities it shows how well we’re doing and it makes me very proud of the region.”

The Arthritis Research UK Tissue Engineering Centre is based at four sites and is led by Newcastle University, though the University of Aberdeen, Keele University/the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Oswestry and the University of York are all actively involved.

Funded by a grant of £2.5m over five years from Arthritis Research UK, with an additional £3.4m donated by the four participating universities – of which Newcastle University is investing £1.2m – the centre will bring together leading clinicians, engineers and biologists.