Understanding & Maintaining Joint Health during Growth and Aging

Research line 1 focuses on a significant societal problem, namely joint health. This is the longest-running transdisciplinary research line of the department (25 years), spanning from cell to patient to population. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disease that will be the most common chronic disease in the Netherlands in the coming years (RIVM). It leads to pain and disability. There is no treatment to cure or halt the disease, thus care is based on reducing symptoms. Although joint replacements effectively reduce pain, they are ultimately a salvage procedure provided to patients with end-stage osteoarthritis. We study joints from childhood to advanced age and combine epidemiological, clinical and fundamental research to develop methods to prevent osteoarthritis development and progression by detecting this disease in an early phase and developing and evaluating innovative treatments to prevent disease progression. Our transdisciplinary research involves imaging, AI, biomechanics, genomics, cell biology, tissue engineering and surgery.  Our goal is to prevent osteoarthritis development and progression by detecting it early and developing innovative treatments to halt joint degeneration.