Musculoskeletal Health
Good musculoskeletal health is important at every stage of life, and plays a vital role in keeping us on our feet. More than 6 million Australians (approximately 14% of the population) suffer from some kind of musculoskeletal condition, such as back pain, arthritis, osteoporosis and fractures.
Musculoskeletal health is a multidisciplinary area of research involving connective tissue biology (including bone, cartilage and muscle), diseases of connective tissue (including arthritis and osteoporosis), biomechanics and surgical/clinical interventions to treat traumatic bone injury and other conditions.
Researchers across the faculty are focused on:
- understating the cellular and molecular basis of normal and pathological bone turnover
- how to best repair fractures after traumatic injury with novel surgical approaches and post-operative management
- how to optimise the outcomes of joint replacement surgery in order to provide better and longer lasting outcomes for patients
- performing gait analysis and activity monitoring to evaluate the success of interventions across all musculoskeletal conditions
- developing better ways to manage spinal cord injury patients to improve their outcomes
- identifying links between bone cells and the molecules they produce and bone health.
Our research centres working in this area
- Centre for Orthopaedic and Trauma Research (Professor Donald Howie)
- Centre of Research Excellence in Frailty and Healthy Ageing (Professor Renuka Visvanathan)
- Centre of Research Excellence in Translating Nutritional Science to Good Health (Professor Michael Horowitz)
- North West Adelaide Health Study (Professor Robert Adams and Professor Anne Taylor)
Our research groups working in this area
- Adelaide Geriatrics Training and Research with Aged Care (G-TRAC) Centre (Professor Renuka Visvanathan)
- Adelaide Spinal Research Group (Professor Brian Freeman)
- Bone Cell Biology Group (Professor Gerald Atkins)
- Breast Cancer Research Unit (Professor Andreas Evdokiou)
- Cerebral Palsy Research Group (Emeritus Professor Alastair MacLennan)
- Integrative Human Neurophysiology Laboratory (Dr Simran Sidhu)
- Mesenchymal Stem Cell Group (Professor Stan Gronthos)
- Myeloma Research Laboratory (Professor Andrew Zannettino)
- Primary Care and Health Services Research Group (Professor Nigel Stocks)
Lead researchers
For additional leads in this area of research, please contact Musculoskeletal Health researchers.
Interested in a postgraduate research degree?
We offer exciting opportunities for researchers at the honours, masters and PhD levels. Our research degrees are open to students from a broad range of backgrounds, and range from basic sciences to clinical research. If you are interested in human health, consider furthering your research career with us.