Contact us
The i-Bank study is a study which is a part of the Imperial College Healthcare Tissue Bank (ICHTB). The ICHTB is a project aimed at carrying out healthcare-related research to better understand health conditions, develop new treatments and to be able to detect diseases earlier.
The purpose of the i-Bank study is to understand risk factors that are associated with the progression of knee osteoarthritis in high-risk groups, such as individuals who have had a knee injury.
We want to know why for some people following a knee injury, they develop problems with their knees in the future and why other people do not.
To do this, we are recruiting three groups of participants:
- People who have recently had a knee injury
- People who have had an injury in the past and now have problems with their knees like osteoarthritis
- People who have knee osteoarthritis but did not have an injury in the past.
We are studying blood samples and synovial fluid (the fluid that bathes our knee joints) donated by participants when they have procedures as part of their usual healthcare and linking this with information about the knee from their healthcare records to help us answer these questions.
We are also studying how our genes (our genetic makeup) contribute to the changes that occur in our joints after a knee injury. Some people might have a variation in a gene that means that they are more likely to start to develop osteoarthritis in their knee joints. To study this, we collect DNA samples from participants (via a blood sample, a cheek swab or saliva sample).
Our research team may come and talk to you about participating in this study in either an outpatient setting during a hospital clinic appointment or when you attend the hospital for a knee operation (e.g. a knee ligament repair, meniscus surgery, knee replacement). To join the i-Bank study as a participant we ask to collect at least one type of sample from you (blood, DNA or synovial fluid). If you don’t want us to collect a certain type of sample, it will not exclude you from participating in this study. Our study team will be available to answer any questions that you may have.