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.

Display of leg bones

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

Our research groups working in this area

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.

Honours Degrees