The overarching goals of Dr. Sharma’s research program are to develop novel approaches to prevent disease and disability development and progression in persons at high risk for or with knee osteoarthritis.  Through large-scale, longitudinal studies of persons at high risk, she and her team seek to shift the initiation of disability prevention efforts to earlier stages, when individuals are well enough to execute them, before the whole-organ, downward osteoarthritic disease progression spiral.  Her interdisciplinary team has examined the role in osteoarthritis disease progression and functional decline of an array of factors, including varus-valgus alignment, frontal and sagittal plane instability, joint proprioceptive acuity, quantitative characteristics of gait, knee and hip muscle strength, meniscal damage, other tissue factors by MRI, self-efficacy, and pain catastrophizing.