Michigan Integrative Musculoskeletal Health Core Center – Core C Project Summary Discovery of new targets and treatments for musculoskeletal diseases requires a deep understanding of the basic biology of musculoskeletal development and function, rigorous research into the fundamental mechanisms of disease pathogenesis, and robust testing of therapeutic targets and therapies aimed at improving disease outcome. Research using animal models is a cornerstone of these efforts enabling the study of organ and integrative organism function, the impact of environment, age, sex, and genetics on disease, and testing therapies and outcomes with disease-relevant measures. The ability to study musculoskeletal phenotypes across a wide-ranging scale of animal models requires considerable expertise and highly specialized training in physiology, biophysics, and engineering, as well as access to costly, high-resolution, state-of-the-art equipment. While occasionally the expertise and equipment for single approaches can be developed in a single laboratory, developing these approaches can be cost prohibitive, redundant, and can lead to proliferation of non-uniform techniques across the field. Rigorous and reproducible basic and preclinical research also requires robust experimental planning that can span multi-modal testing platforms from cellular and organ level function to in vivo physiology testing, in order to provide a fully comprehensive measure of phenotype or disease pathology. In cross-disciplinary research, innovation often arises from collaborations that extend beyond the limits of expertise in individual investigator laboratories alone. The overall long-term goal of the Function Core (Core C) of the Michigan Integrative Musculoskeletal Health Center (MiMHC) is to provide state-of-the-art animal and organ level phenotyping resources at the University of Michigan that can be used by the entire musculoskeletal research community, regardless of individual expertise. The Core brings together the leadership and technical experts in the physiology and biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system to provide fully staffed, specialized laboratory approaches to musculoskeletal biology including whole animal in vivo phenotyping and surgical models of musculoskeletal disease, and state-of-the-art measurements in bone mechanics, muscle function and mechanics, tendon mechanics, and neuromuscular function. Further emphasis on training and sharing of new technologies, standardization, and collaboration will expand the impact of Core C for our users and the broader musculoskeletal research community.