About the Authors

Riccardo Gottardi

Contributed equally to this work with: Riccardo Gottardi, Uwe Hansen

Affiliations Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering, University of Genova, Genova, Italy, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, United States of America, Ri.MED Foundation, Palermo, Italy

Uwe Hansen

Contributed equally to this work with: Riccardo Gottardi, Uwe Hansen

Affiliations Institute of Experimental Musculoskeletal Medicine, University Hospital of Münster, Münster, Germany, Institute for Physiological Chemistry and Pathochemistry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

Roberto Raiteri

Affiliation Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering, University of Genova, Genova, Italy

Marko Loparic

Affiliation Biozentrum University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Marcel Düggelin

Affiliation Center for Microscopy, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Daniel Mathys

Affiliation Center for Microscopy, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Niklaus F. Friederich

Affiliation Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Traumatology, Kantonsspital Bruderholz/Basel, Basel, Switzerland

Peter Bruckner

Affiliation Institute for Physiological Chemistry and Pathochemistry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany

Martin Stolz

M.Stolz@soton.ac.uk

Affiliations Biozentrum University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, nCATS (national Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton), Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: RG UH PB MS. Data curation: RG UH MS. Formal analysis: RG UH MS. Funding acquisition: RG RR PB. Investigation: RG UH MD DM MS. Methodology: RG UH MD DM PB MS. Project administration: RG UH RR MS. Resources: RG UH RR ML MD DM NFF PB MS. Software: RG UH MS. Supervision: RG UH RR PB MS. Validation: RG UH ML PB MS. Visualization: RG UH MS. Writing – original draft: RG UH MS. Writing – review & editing: RG UH MS.