See what we’re about
Exercise for Science is a multidisciplinary medical research collaboration dedicated to studying the effects of exercise on joint and muscle health.
We began in 2015, studying London Marathon runners’ knees. In 2018 we turned our attention to running and hips. Since then we’ve expanded our studies to look at all aspects of exercise in relation to joint and muscle health. Recent projects have explored the effects of exercise on cyclists and those who’ve taken the NHS Couch-to-5K and Active-10 fitness challenges.
Our studies have produced a wealth of evidence on the vital role that muscles play in keeping joints healthy. This ‘muscle factor’ has become a key focus for our research. Our core team is based at Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in the UK. The project is a collaboration between University College London, The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, and Cleveland Clinic London, with support from a number of charities.
Meet the team
We are orthopaedic surgeons, biomedical engineers, biotechnologists, radiologists and specialists from diverse medical fields, working together to understand how exercise can help everyone have more healthy joints.
Surgeons
Prof. Alister Hart
Alister is the UCL chair of orthopaedics and a consultant hip surgeon. He leads a research team of surgical technologists, based at the UCL Stanmore Campus & RNOH NHS Trust, focused on Implant Science and Surgical Imaging Technology, with Running for Science being a key project.
Alister has pioneered the use of 3D printing for hip surgery, robotic surgery and the analysis of orthopaedic implants. His research on implant science has led to changes to international health policy; development of clinical guidance in the UK and abroad; changes to clinical practice and subsequent cost savings.
Alister trained at Caius College, Cambridge, then Guy's and St Thomas' and the RNOH. He has published his work in more than 180 papers (first or last author on >100) with 200 co-authors, including the journal Nature. These papers have had >4000 citations and an h index of 37. He has been Principal Investigator on 26 grant awards since 2006 with total funding of more than £7 million from research councils (EPSRC and MRC), Innovate UK, Technology Strategy Board, NIHR, charities and industry.
Alister Hart supervises PhD and iBSc students and is leader for clinical modules at UCL musculoskeletal science and physical rehabilitation courses. He has convened, organised and financed seven international meetings held at the Wellcome, The Royal College of surgeons and the Royal Society of Medicine.
Mr Johann Henckel
Johann is an orthopaedic surgeon with research interests in developing imaging software solutions to aid the understanding of the biomechanics of the lower limb musculoskeletal system.
His research includes surgical technology applied to hip and knee joint replacement with expertise in the field of robotics and computer assisted surgery.
Radiologists
Dr. Anastasia Fotiadou
Dr. Fotiadou is Consultant Musculoskeletal Radiologist and Clinical Director for imaging services at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London, and Honorary Associate Professor at University College London. She has a PhD degree on shoulder imaging, awarded by the University of Thessaly, Greece.
She graduated from medical school in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1999 where she was trained as a radiologist too. Post-CCST, she worked as an honorary registrar at the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt hospital in Oswestry, then returned to Greece and worked as Consultant Radiologist in one of the university hospitals in Thessaloniki before moving permanently to the UK in 2009.
Dr Fotiadou has authored 34 peer reviewed articles and seven chapters in international books. She is also the senior editor for the musculoskeletal section of BJR case reports, and lectures and moderates sessions regularly in ESSR and ISS.
Dr Anna C. Hirschmann
Dr. Hirschmann leads the Musculosketal Radiology devision at University Hospital of Basel in Switzerland. She was fellowship-trained in Musculoskeletal Radiology at University Hospital Balgrist in Zurich/Switzerland and completed a one-year research fellowship at New York University New York/USA and Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum in Leiden/Netherlands. She received her academic degree “associated professor” in 2018.
Her main clinical interests are sport-related injuries, bone tumors and rheumatological diseases. She lectures at national and international radiology and orthopaedic conferences. Her research focuses on biomechanics of joint imaging and correlations of MR and SPECT/CT, in particular the knee joint. Her MSK unit closely collaborates with the nuclear medicine department, orthopaedic surgeons and MR physicists. A summary of her research projects can be found here.
Engineers
Dr. Anna Di Laura
Dr. Anna Di Laura is an orthopaedic engineer with a background in biomedical engineering (BEng, MSc, PhD). She is the RNOH Implant Imaging Fellow and honorary Associate Professor at UCL. Her current research is aimed at a better understanding, through medical image computing, surgical planning and assessment of outcome, of how to improve hip function in humans; in patients with hip problems and also those with hip replacements.
Dr. Martin Belzunce
Dr. Martin Belzunce is an engineer with a PhD in image processing. His research interests are the basic science and translation of novel medical image processing methods into medical applications.
In recent years, he has focused on image processing for musculoskeletal applications, where he has developed novel tools to automate and enhance the quantitative analysis of muscle health from MRI.