I graduated from the University of York with first class honours in Physics and moved across the Pennines to do a PhD in Medical Biophysics at the University of Manchester under Professor D.W.L. Hukins. My project was to measure the orientation of collagen fibrils as a function of depth from the surface in articular cartilage and to do this I developed methods using x-ray diffraction and polarised light. Subsequently, these have been used on tissues such as ligaments, intervertebral disc, meniscus and uterine cervix. I stayed a while in Manchester before gaining a Wellcome Travelling Fellowship to work with Professor D. Heinegård in the Department of Physiological Chemistry at the University of Lund, Sweden. This was a valuable time of learning some biology in order to study how biological and mechanical factors are inter-related. On returning to the UK I moved to Aberdeen and set up the Orthopaedic Research Laboratories. In 1992, I was awarded an MRC Senior Fellowship, and this was renewed in 1997. I was appointed to a personal chair as Professor in Orthopaedic Science in 2000.

Research

• Is osteoarthritis a systemic musculoskeletal disorder and are there common mechanisms underlying the disease process that can produce the changes observed in bone, muscle and soft connective tissues as well as cartilage?
• What are the immediate responses of articular cartilage chondrocytes to an impact load and can subsequent progressive cartilage degeneration be prevented?
• Can imaging methods be developed for clinical use that enable a better assessment of hip fracture risk in individuals with osteoporosis and that can identify individuals with early, preclinical OA affecting the hip or knee?
• How does bone strength depend on the composition and structure of the tissue and how is this affected by disease?
• Can we show that the hip functions primarily in compression and, if so, what are the consequences for the design of hip prostheses?
• What are the consequences of the flexible, curved nature of the human spine for its load-bearing capabilities and low back pain?
  

Current Research Interests

Selected Recent Publications
publications by date
publications by research area

K.L. Goh, J.R. Meakin, R.M. Aspden and D.W.L. Hukins. Stress transfer in collagen fibrils reinforcing connective tissues: effects of collagen fibril slenderness and relative stiffness.
Journal of Theoretical Biology , in press.

K.L. Goh, R.M. Aspden and D.W.L. Hukins. Shear lag models for stress transfer from an elastic matrix to a fibre in a composite material.
International Journal of Materials & Structural Integrity , in press.

L.V. Burgin and R.M. Aspden. A drop tower for controlled impact testing of biological tissues
Medical Engineering and Physics 29 : 525-530, 2007.

J.E. Jeffrey and R.M. Aspden. The biophysical effects of a single impact load on human and bovine articular cartilage.
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine 220 : 677-686, 2006.
Doi: 10.1243/09544119JEIM31

M.S. Plumb, K. Treon and R.M. Aspden. Competing regulation of matrix biosynthesis by mechanical and IGF-1 signalling in elderly human articular cartilage in vitro .
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1760 : 762-767, 2006.
Doi:10.1016/j.bbagen.2006.01.019

K.E. Rudman, R.M. Aspden, and J.R. Meakin. Compression or tension? The stress distribution in the proximal femur. BioMedical Engineering OnLine 2006, 5 :12.

R.M. Aspden, K.E. Rudman, and J.R. Meakin. A mechanism for balancing the human body on the hips.
Journal of Biomechanics 39 : 1757-1759, 2006.
Doi: 10.1016/j.jbiomech.2005.04.028

L. Yao, C.S. Bestwick, L.A. Bestwick, N. Maffulli, and R.M. Aspden. Phenotypic drift in human tenocyte culture.
Tissue Engineering 12 : 1843-1849, 2006.
DOI: 10.1089/ten.2006.12.1843

T.L. Stewart, P. Roschger, B.M. Misof, V. Mann, P. Fratzl, K. Klaushofer, R. Aspden, and S.H. Ralston. Association of COLIA1 Sp1 Alleles with Defective Bone Nodule Formation In Vitro and Abnormal Bone Mineralization In Vivo.
Calcified Tissue International 77 : 113-118, 2005. Doi: 10.1007/s00223-004-0188-8.

J.S. Gregory, A. Stewart, P.E Undrill, D.M. Reid and R.M Aspden. Bone shape, structure and density as determinants of osteoporotic hip fracture: A pilot study investigating the combination of risk factors.
Investigative Radiology 40 : 591-597, 2005.

K.L. Goh., J.R. Meakin, R.M. Aspden, and D.W.L. Hukins. Influence of fibril taper on the function of collagen to reinforce extra-cellular matrix.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B272 : 1979-1983, 2005. Doi: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3173.

M.S. Plumb and R.M. Aspden. The response of elderly human articular cartilage to mechanical stimuli in vitro .
Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 13 : 1084-1091, 2005.

S. Rahmatallah, Y. Li, H.C. Seton, I.S. Mackenzie, J.S. Gregory and R.M. Aspden. NMR detection and one-dimensional imaging using the inhomogeneous magnetic field of a portable single-sided magnet.
Journal of Magnetic Resonance 173 : 23-28, 2005.

L.D. Mkukuma, C.T. Imrie, J.M. Skakle, D.W.L. Hukins and R.M. Aspden. Thermal stability and structure of cancellous bone mineral from the human femoral head of patients with osteoarthritis or osteoporosis.
Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 64 : 222-225, 2005.

L.D. Mkukuma, J.M.S. Skakle, I.R. Gibson, C.T. Imrie, R.M. Aspden and D.W.L. Hukins. Effect of the Proportion of Organic Material in Bone on Thermal Decomposition of Bone Mineral: an Investigation of a Variety of Bones from Different Species using Thermogravimetric Analysis coupled to Mass Spectrometry, High-Temperature X-ray Diffraction and Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy.
Calcified Tissue International 75 : 321-328, 2004. Doi: 10.1007/s00223-004-0199-5.

J.S. Gregory, A. Stewart, P.E Undrill, D.M. Reid and R.M Aspden. Identification of hip fracture patients from radiographs using Fourier analysis of the trabecular structure: a cross-sectional study
BMC Medical Imaging , 4:4, 2004. Doi:10.1186/1471-2342-4-4

M.S. Plumb and R.M. Aspden. High levels of fat and (n-6) fatty acids in cancellous bone in osteoarthritis.
Lipids in Health and Disease 3 : 12, 2004. Doi:10.1186/1476-511X-3-12.

J.M. Somerville, R.M. Aspden, K.E. Armour, K.J. Armour and D.M. Reid. Growth of C57Bl/6 mice and the material and mechanical properties of bone.
Calcified Tissue International 74 : 469-475, 2004.

J.S. Gregory, D. Testi, A. Stewart, P.E. Undrill, D.M. Reid and R.M. Aspden. A method for assessment of the shape of the proximal femur and its relationship to osteoporotic hip fracture.
Osteoporosis International , 15 : 5-11, 2004.

K.L. Goh, R.M. Aspden, K.J. Mathias and D.W.L. Hukins. Finite element analysis of the effect of material properties and fibre shape on stresses in an elastic fibre embedded in an elastic matrix in a fibre composite material.
Proceedings of the Royal Society A460 : 2339-2352, 2004. Doi: 10.1098/rspa.2003.1264.

More detailed publications