The program supports three primary research areas: clinical osteoarthritis; bone quality and skeletal imaging; and human genetics of bone and cartilage. Within each of these portfolio areas, studies emphasize the following:

Clinical osteoarthritis and the Osteoarthritis Initiative:

• Epidemiology and pathogenesis of osteoarthritis.
• Physical, environmental and genetic risk factors for osteoarthritis.
• Treatment, prevention, and diagnosis of osteoarthritis.
• Novel imaging methods for cartilage and joints.

Bone quality and skeletal imaging:

• In vivo methods for macro and micro scale imaging of bone.
• Architecture and mechanical properties of bone.
• Multi-scale modeling of the human bone.
• Assessment of bone quality.
• Clinical studies related to bone strength and density.

Human genetics of bone and cartilage:

• Genetic/genomic epidemiology.
• Gene discovery and high throughput technologies.
• Gene-environment interactions.