For people suffering from knee osteoarthritis, currently physiotherapy exercises are the only effective way to manage it. If the exercise also does not help, the last resort is knee replacement surgery.
Researchers at Cornell University have developed a synthetic lubricin that can be placed over the joint surface of knee and thus relieves pain. A hope to millions of people suffering from OA.
What is lubricin?
In osteoarthritis the lubricating gel inside the joints gets dry up and the articulating surface frictions with each other giving rise to unbearable pain and reduced quality of life.
Inside normal healthy joints the articulating surface is lined by a slippery molecule called lubricin. It is present in all our large joints so your knees, hips and shoulders can move freely for decades.
After an injury, or as we age, our body produces less lubricin. This makes the joint surface rough and friction goes up, cartilage starts to wear away, and over time this lead to osteoarthritis. Wondering about your own risk? Check the 7 risk factors of knee osteoarthritis or take the free knee osteoarthritis risk calculator.
What did the researchers create?
According to the press release Cornell engineers David Putnam and Lawrence Bonassar have spent over a decade designing a synthetic, lubricin-inspired polymer. They describe it as a piece of yarn with two spliced sections:
- A sticky section that grips onto cartilage and bone.
- A water-loving section that holds water tightly and drags a thin, slippery film along with it.
Neither half worked alone. Only the two joined together, in the right order, gave the slippery effect.
What did the lab studies show?
- In a 2019 study on bovine cartilage with its natural lubricin removed, the polymer reduced the friction coefficient from about 0.39 to 0.09. That is nearly the same result as real lubricin.
- A 2020 study found that the length of the sticky anchor section mattered most. There was a “sweet spot” of about 24 amine groups. Too short and it did not anchor well, and too long and friction crept back up.
Actually, natural lubricin is hard and expensive to produce at scale. A synthetic version is simpler to make and can be modified according to the need making this kind of treatment more practical.
Where does it stand now?
A start-up called Pleryon Therapeutics, co-founded by a former Cornell PhD student, is taking the material forward. First-in-human trials are planned in:
- Australia, for knee osteoarthritis
- Canada, for dry eye disease
This is not yet an available treatment. Human trials are only starting, and we do not yet know how well it works or how safe it is in people.
Learning about this study made me remember another research that also developed synthetic lubrication for joints called hydrogels. However, it was designed for rheumatoid arthritis sufferer. I covered it in my post on hydrogel injections for rheumatoid arthritis joint pain. Injections are already used in joint care today too, and you can read what to know about steroid injections for joint pain.
What can you do today?
Hope the researchers make this a treatment option available for everyone asap.
While research continues, the basics still matter for joint health:
- Keep moving. Gentle, regular exercise helps nourish cartilage. Try this home exercise routine for osteoarthritis knee pain.
- Strengthen the muscles around your knees and hips. Start with these 8 easy knee strengthening exercises.
- Maintain a healthy body weight to reduce load on your joints.
- Look at how you walk. A small change in foot angle may also ease knee OA pain, as I explained in Simple Walking Change Reduces Knee Osteoarthritis Pain by 60%.
- Know which movements to skip. Read these knee pain precautions and the exercises to avoid in knee arthritis.
- Don’t ignore persistent joint pain. A physiotherapy assessment can help you find the cause early.
If you have knee pain or stiffness, book an assessment so we can build a plan that suits you.
Source: Cornell Chronicle, “A synthetic answer to the squeak in aging joints” (October 7, 2026).
The author is a physiotherapist who has been practising for the last 17 years. He holds a Bachelor's in Physiotherapy (BPT) from SVNIRTAR (Swami Vivekananda National Institute of Rehabilitation and Research), one of the prestigious physiotherapy schools in India.
Whatever he learns dealing with his patient, he shares it with the world through blogs and e-books. He also owns a YouTube channel, "Sunit Physiotherapist" with over 8 lakh active subscribers. Here, he shares everything he gets to learn serving the patient.
