A Centre for Medical Engineering Solutions in the Management of Osteoarthritis.

We will create a Centre at Imperial College that brings together a critical mass of engineers, clinicians and basic scientists, collaborating to use technology to improve the diagnosis, understanding, surgical management and rehabilitative treatment of osteoarthritis. The Centre will build on substantial existing infrastructure and leverage our world leading technologies to achieve the following key goals: - Develop an aptamer based platform technology for detection of known and emerging biomarkers for osteoarthritis, permitting better diagnosis and longitudinal monitoring of patients. - Create techniques for growing tissue engineered osteochondral constructs with superior mechanical and integrative properties. - Engineer next generation implants for joint replacement surgery. - Develop hardware, software and expertise for more accurate surgical treatments of joint disease, including minimally invasive surgical approaches. - Improve fundamental understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of osteoarthritis, thus identifying next generation therapeutic targets. - Characterise the biomechanics of normal and diseased knees. - Deliver technologies which improve patient compliance and outcomes during rehabilitation. The proven technology transfer track record of the applicants, seven of whom are already involved with spin out companies, plus Imperial College's ethos of technology development and commercialization, will ensure that the innovations developed by the Centre will be translated into products that improve healthcare delivery.