Steve Messier

Professor, Director of the J.B. Snow Biomechanics Laboratory

Worrell 2152
messier@wfu.edu
336.758.5849

Dr. Messier is Professor and Director of the J.B Snow Biomechanics Laboratory at Wake Forest University. He has been at Wake Forest for 42 years and has 32 years of experience in clinical trials research specifically related to knee osteoarthritis (OA). He has received the lifetime achievement award from the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (2022), the Borelli Award from the American Society of Biomechanics (2020) for outstanding career accomplishment through exemplary research in biomechanics, and the career achievement award from the American College of Sports Medicine Biomechanics Group (2009). He has published over 125 original manuscripts including 20 over the past 5 years. He and his OA research team are well known for their work on the effects of exercise and weight loss on gait, strength, function, and pain in knee OA.

Dr. Messier is currently the principal investigator of the multi-center The Osteoarthritis Prevention Study (TOPS). TOPS is a primary prevention intervention trial of dietary weight loss, exercise, and weight-loss maintenance for females (N = 1230) at risk for the development of knee osteoarthritis designed to reduce incident structural and symptomatic knee osteoarthritis. Previously, Dr. Messier 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), the Intensive Diet and Exercise for Arthritis (IDEA) study, the Strength Training for Arthritis Trial (START), and the Weight loss and Exercise for Communities with Arthritis in North Carolina (WE-CAN). WE-CAN was a pragmatic randomized clinical trial of 823 older adults with knee OA, and overweight and obesity that is designed to determine if the diet and exercise intervention implemented in a highly controlled efficacy trial (IDEA) could be successfully implemented in diverse community settings. These studies are funded with grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Arthritis Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Messier was on the Board of Directors for the Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI) from 2014-2018, the leading scientific organization devoted exclusively to osteoarthritis. He is the past chair of the OARSI Fiscal Committee. He is an associate editor of Arthritis and Rheumatology, the official journal of the American College of Rheumatology.

Messier Biosketch