Dr. Messier is Professor and Director of the J.B Snow Biomechanics Laboratory at Wake Forest University. He has been at Wake Forest for 31 years and has 23 years’ experience in clinical trials research specifically related to knee osteoarthritis. He is well known for his work on the effects of exercise and weight loss on gait, strength, function, and pain in knee OA. He was the co-principal investigator of the Fitness Arthritis in Seniors Trial (FAST), the principal investigator of the Arthritis Diet and Activity Promotion Trial (ADAPT), and the Intensive Diet and Exercise for Arthritis (IDEA) study, and currently is the principal investigator of the Strength Training for Arthritis Trial (START) in which his research team will recruit 372 older adults with knee osteoarthritis for an 18-month intensive strength training intervention study. Each of these studies has been funded with grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Messier is also the director of the Wake Forest Runners’ Clinic that uses the skills of physical therapists, orthopaedic surgeons, and biomechanists to determine the causes of overuse injuries in runners. Currently, he is the principal investigator of The Runners And Injury Longitudinal Study (TRAILS) that is funded by the United States Army.
MCRC Conference Meeting "Obesity and Osteoarthritis: Clinical and Biomechanical Perspectives"
Presented by Stephen Messier, PhD, Professor and Director of the J.B.
Snow Biomechanics Laboratory
at Wake Forest University and Co-PI of the FAST, and PI of the ADAPT, IDEA, and START studies of diet/exercise interventions for persons with knee OA can be accessed at:
IDEA Study Video 1 (WXII 12 News)