Genomics of Osteoporosis

Abstract

Osteoporosis is the most common bone disease in United States and developed countries and a major public health threat for an estimated 44 million Americans. It is characterized by low bone mineral density and micro architectural deterioration of bone tissue, with a consequent increase in bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture, especially of hip, spine and wrist. Osteoporosis is multifactorial disease influenced by large number of environmental and genetic factors. Though a number of FDA approved drugs are available for treating this complex disease, a medication, which could specifically and effectively reverse symptoms of it is lackin. As the initial step for approaching disease treatment my current research focuses on locatin candidate genes on linkage regions for BMD on human chromosomes, which potentially can be used for developing novel targets and strategies for therapeutic interventions. We will also define the mouse homologs in the syntenic regions as basis for future studies involving animal models of disturbed BMD. An automated interface which will give information on human - mouse synteny between human marker intervals of interest was developed which will expedite future synteny studies.