First Convergence shared facility: osteoarthritis research lab

A new osteoarthritis research lab is opening at Erasmus MC. In this lab, scientists from TU Delft and Erasmus MC will study how joints are stressed and how this causes osteoarthritis. ‘With the results from the MOBI-lab, we aim to give patients at least five additional good years of life.’

Engineers from TU Delft and doctors from Erasmus MC are collaborating in the new MOBI-lab to find a solution for osteoarthritis. The lab’s location, right in the heart of the hospital, enables scientists to innovate, implement, and scale up more quickly.

This is urgently needed, as 1.5 million Dutch people suffer from osteoarthritis, a number that could rise to 2.3 million by 2040. Osteoarthritis professor Sita Bierma from Erasmus MC states: ‘One of the biggest challenges with osteoarthritis is the late diagnosis. This leads to delayed treatments or general treatments like pain relief. Ultimately, some patients may even need a prosthesis.’

She continues: ‘We want to know early on if there are forces in the joint that negatively affect osteoarthritis, so we can treat people earlier and more effectively.’

Treadmill

In the lab, test subjects with osteoarthritis walk on a treadmill. The treadmill measures the pressure points of the feet while a dynamic X-ray captures the knee joint from the inside. Ten different cameras track markers placed on the knee. This is called motion capture, a technique also widely used in the gaming industry.

The facility allows researchers to measure the forces on the cartilage very precisely. This would not have been possible without the collaboration between doctors, researchers and engineers within Convergence, says Jaap Harlaar, professor of Clinical Biomechanics at TU Delft. ‘This lab enables research that is not available anywhere else in the world.’

Complete picture

‘We are getting a complete picture of the disruptions in the cartilage for the first time in the MOBI-lab,’ says Edwin Oei, professor of musculoskeletal imaging at Erasmus MC. ‘This way, we can detect joint damage and abnormal cartilage quality at an earlier stage and treat them effectively, even before the cartilage is worn out.’

Osteoarthritis causes a lot of pain and stiffness. ‘You only get a new knee when the pain has become unbearable. This means years of pain beforehand,’ says Oei. ‘In the first few years, only test subjects will be in the lab, but ultimately we want to provide patients with at least five additional good years of life based on the results from the MOBI-lab.’

‘This lab enables research that is not available anywhere else in the world.’

Harlaar: ‘We are bringing Delft technology to Rotterdam. By collaborating with all these researchers with different expertise, we can work more efficiently on new solutions. There’s less noise. This allows us to apply techniques or treatments more quickly. Because Erasmus MC collaborates with regional hospitals, scaling up is also quicker, making solutions available to more patients.’

Shared facilities

The MOBI-lab is one of the first shared facilities of Convergence Health & Technology, the research collaboration between Erasmus MC, TU Delft, and Erasmus University Rotterdam, and originated from Medical Delta. Within Convergence Health & Technology, the three institutes are joining forces to tackle the healthcare challenges of the future due to ageing and rising costs. The MOBI-lab is part of Healthy Joints, one of our ten major research projects, or ‘flagships’ of Convergence Health and Technology. You can find more about our mission and vision here.