How joints respond to everyday loading with age, sex, and osteoarthritis
Official title: Imaging of Joint Response to Physiological Stress with Age, Sex and in Osteoarthritis
Funded at Stanford University · NIH-11300171 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project uses PET‑MRI scans taken before and after normal joint loading to measure bone and cartilage responses in older adults and people with osteoarthritis.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Stanford University NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Stanford, United States) |
| Project start | May 1, 2022 |
| Project end | February 28, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $502,529 |
| NIH project number | 5R01AR079431-05 |
| Project ID | NIH-11300171 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults who can undergo PET‑MRI and perform simple loading tasks—particularly older adults and people with knee or joint pain or diagnosed osteoarthritis—are ideal candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People who cannot have MRI (for example due to incompatible implants), pregnant individuals, or those unable to travel to Stanford for in-person scans would likely not be able to participate or benefit.
What this research studies
You would come to Stanford for PET‑MRI scans that use a safe tracer ([18F]NaF) to highlight bone metabolism and joint tissues. The team will take images before and after simple loading tasks (for example walking or controlled joint loading) to see how tissues change with stress. They will compare responses across ages, between men and women, and between people with and without osteoarthritis. The goal is to find early, reversible signs of joint breakdown that routine static imaging can miss.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this approach could help detect osteoarthritis earlier by revealing how joint tissues respond to everyday stress, potentially enabling earlier treatments to prevent damage.
How similar studies have gone: Previous work has shown [18F]NaF PET-MRI can detect bone metabolic changes and that loading alters NaF uptake, but using a PET-MRI 'stress test' for early OA detection is a relatively new approach.
Where this research is happening
-
Stanford University
Stanford, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Kogan, Feliks — Stanford University
- Study coordinator: Kogan, Feliks
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.