About us

In 2009 Versus Arthritis UK selected Cardiff University to be its prestigious UK Centre of excellence in biomechanics and bioengineering.

The Centre is investigating how our everyday movements can influence the health of our joints and how this may contribute to disease onset. This is providing invaluable information on how disease arises and how best to treat arthritis, enabling us to develop new therapies.

Through our research, we apply a 'molecule-to-man' approach to investigate normal joint biomechanics in order to determine how this is influenced by disease, and to inform clinical treatments and rehabilitation in musculoskeletal disorders.

Our people form a strong team of internationally-recognised researchers and clinicians who share a long-term vision to apply multidisciplinary research to improve patient care.

Cardiff University's research strengths in the following areas are being used to define, identify and target mechanisms that contribute to joint disease:

• Biomechanics – joint movement and loading
• Bioengineering – linking engineering principles to biology
• Mechanotransduction – how joint loading affects cell response
• Pain
• Inflammation

The Centre involves close collaborations between patients, biomedical scientists, engineers, orthopaedic surgeons, rheumatologists, physiotherapists and the general public to translate research into patient benefits. We also benefit from links with industry and external research programmes and strong relationships with participants who volunteer to help us with our research.