In this application, we propose to provide a multidisciplinary platform for mentoring women in science and engineering (WISE) to have sucessful careers in osteoarthritis research. This builds on the work of our first Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) award on osteoarthritis (OA). Each project in this application is led by a women faculty member and all junior faculty will have scientific mentors and career mentors to help them in the transition to becoming tenured faculty with NIH support. In our three-pronged approach, we will extablish external networks, internal mentoring, and university-wide programs to increase institutional awareness of gender issues. This COBRE award operates through our Center for BiomedicalEngineering Research (CBER) at the University of Delaware. The aim of the Center is to create theinfrastructure and expertise base to address the mechanisms of OA, as well as its prevention and treatment.The uniqueness of the approach to be employed by our center will be the examination of OA from theintegrated, multidisciplinary translational perspectives of biochemistry, tissue mechanics, biomechanics,physical therapy and clinical intervention. Some of the core scientific areas of expertise in the proposedprogram are well-established at the University of Delaware, but they have traditionally been spread acrossdifferent laboratories in different departments and have minimal involvement of junior faculty members. In the context of our proposed work, we will build upon the distinctive organization of CBER established with the COBRE award and the collaborative projects described in this application. Five subprojects will be carried out under the Center umbrella. The subprojects are multidisciplinary and the participants are drawn from multiple academic units in the Colleges of Engineering, Arts & Sciences, and Health Sciences. The projecttitles are (1) Perlecan and Heparanase in Cartilage Growth and Healing, (2) Solute Transport in theSubchondral Bone Plate of Osteoarthritic Joints, (3) Risk Factors for Progression of Osteoarthritis of the Knee, (4) Joint Loading and the Progression of Osteoarthritis following Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA), and (5) Knee Stiffness, Proprioception and Instability affect Knee Control in OA. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]