Research group

Interdisciplinary Musculoskeletal Health

4 Stained femur cross sections

The University hosts a substantial interdisciplinary community of researchers working to transform musculoskeletal health across the life course.

About

With expertise in regenerative medicine, physiology, engineering, orthopaedics, prosthetics and orthotics, rehabilitation and assistive technologies, epidemiology and clinical trial design, we aim to improve lives by delivering improved treatments, increasing the speed to market of musculoskeletal-focused technology and training the next generation of scientists and engineers. 

The population across the globe is living longer, which brings a number of healthcare challenges, especially in musculoskeletal health. The burden of age-related disease and injury is rising rapidly, having a detrimental impact on people’s quality of life and increasing the costs of healthcare provision. Loss of muscle mass and function is the leading reason for loss of independence in later life, and causes impaired mobility, falls, fractures, physical disability, increased insulin resistance and associated co-morbidities, and mortality. The number of hip fractures is expected to rise to 6.3 million by 2050 and the number of diabetic lower limb amputations has now risen to 7,000 per year in the UK and over 70,000 in the USA. 

The University is working to meet these challenges by creating networks of experts working in interdisciplinary musculoskeletal health research to develop new technologies, interventions and practices that will have a positive effect on people’s lives:

  • FortisNet is an interdisciplinary research network of clinical, academic and industrial partners that aims to develop products and services to transform musculoskeletal health. Launched in 2016, we have fostered over 50 new collaborations with other universities from across the UK, the NHS and industry. We have developed courses with national partners to help innovators understand how to bring medical technologies to market, and through investment in interdisciplinary studentships we are working to dissolve discipline boundaries, to train a new generation of life scientists and engineers for the benefit of society.
  • MyAge (Muscle resilience across the life course: from cells to society) is one of eleven UK Ageing Networks, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and Medical Research Council. Led by the Institute for Life Sciences, together with partners from Birmingham, Nottingham and Imperial, the network will guide the future of muscle resilience research through roadmap development and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Research highlights

Preventing the transmission of non-communicable disease risk between generations

Research from the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Centre demonstrates how the diet and lifestyle choices of prospective parents and pregnant mothers can affect the long-term health of their children.

Using nanoclay gel to regrow, repair and replace damaged cells

Southampton researchers have developed an innovative medical clay that can be used to apply regenerative medicine to patients with musculoskeletal conditions.

People, projects and publications

People

Professor Adam Prugel-Bennett

Prof of Electronics & Computer Science
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Dr Adriana Wilde PhD

Lecturer

Research interests

  • Safe, inclusive, and secure digital technologies for health to empower people to live independently

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Afaf El-Sagheer

Lecturer in Chemistry

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Age Chapman

Professor of Computer Science
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Dr Al Edwards

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Affordable microfluidic diagnostics and "µMicro" miniaturised microbiology
  • Engineering next generation vaccines: formulation and function

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Alain Zemkoho

Professor of Mathematical Optimization

Research interests

  • Bilevel and hierarchical optimization
  • First and second order numerical methods for continuous optimization
  • Nonsmooth and nonconvex optimization

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Alan Marchant

Professorial Fellow-Education

Research interests

  • My previous research interests centred on the role of auxin transport in plant development and the synthesis and function of the plant cell wall. I use my experience in these research areas to inform the teaching that I deliver.
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Dr Alessio Bellato Ph.D., MSc, BSc, FHEA, PGCHE

Lecturer

Research interests

  • Emotion regulation & dysregulation
  • Psychophysiology
  • ADHD & autism

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Alex Dickinson

Professor

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Dr Ali Mosayyebi

Senior Research Fellow
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Related research institutes, centres and groups

Related research institutes, centres and groups

Connect with us

We welcome new members. To join, or find out more about FortisNet or MyAge, please email the Institute for Life Sciences team.