Osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative joint disease, and a rapidly growing cause of musculoskeletal disability, chronic pain, and reduced quality of life in an ageing European population. Our aims are to gain novel insights into osteoarthritis - its etiology, occurrence, natural history, treatments, prediction, disease monitoring, and disease burden - to allow for better care, decision making, resource prioritization, and prevention of the disease. We will accomplish these goals using a multidisciplinary approach including human tissue biobanking, proteomics, and MR imaging, to characterize the molecular and structural aspects of tissue degradation, with special focus on the role of meniscus lesions in early knee osteoarthritis. Further, in our population-based epidemiologic and health economic studies of musculoskeletal disease, we use physician-coded healthcare data in southern Sweden to understand the impact of osteoarthritis on patient and society.