The Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering at the University of Leeds has over thirty years research experience into wear of artificial joints.

The Institute has the largest public sector research laboratory in the world for experimental wear performance analysis of artificial joints, with over 80 stations of hip joint, knee joint, ankle, spine and universal wear simulators.

Research landmarks in the last decade include:

• Development and validation of scratch resistant femoral heads.
• Studies that revealed the accelerated wear rate and increased osteolytic potential of aged gamma irradiated in air polyethylene.
• Directly coupled tribological and biological cell culture methods, which can determine osteolytic potential and have demonstrated the importance of the particle size and concentration on the release of osteolytic cytokines.
• The development of models to determine functional osteolytic potential of artificial joints.
• Development of novel wear simulator methods for knee prostheses and the effect of materials and prosthesis design on wear.
• Studies of the influence of swing plane load or joint laxity on hip wear.

This research has underpinned the development of new metal on metal, ceramic on ceramic, ceramic on metal and crosslinked polyethylene total joint replacements.

IMBE recently launched their newly refurbished joint simulation facility, the Wolfson Foundation Laboratory.

The Wolfson Foundation Laboratory is the largest academic facility in the world for the experimental functional simulation of artificial joint replacements. The facility, comprising of over one hundred individual stations for hip, knee, spine, and ankle research, has a capital value of £3 million, and includes models and methods that are unique to Leeds.