The goal of the Department of Musculoskeletal Biology is to understand the processes that underlie ageing and disease in tissues such as skeletal muscle, bone, cartilage, tendon and ligament. Research is fundamental and encompasses disciplines including anatomy, biomechanics, physiology and molecular cell biology. The Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease provides a powerful focus for understanding the many variables – from bioscience to social – that influence ageing and chronic disease in people throughout their lives. The Department boasts an enviable array of expertise from medical and veterinary clinician-scientists, biomedical scientists and epidemiologists and has state-of-the-art facilities. Our research programmes are generously funded through grants from the MRC, BBSRC, NIH (USA), Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust, Arthritis Research UK and other charities. Through the leadership within the institute the University of Liverpool is one of three academic partners in the MRC-Arthritis Research UK Centre for Integrated research into Musculoskeletal Ageing (CIMA).