Bone Cell Biology

Key Objectives
Our goal is to understand the cellular and molecular basis of pathologies that affect the skeleton.

Major Research Interests
Osteoclast differentiation and biology
The mechanisms of bone loss in cancers of bone
Gene expression in osteoarthritic bone
Osteoblast/osteoclast signalling
Anti-tumour agents

Summary
The Bone Cell Biology Laboratory of the Discipline of Orthopaedics and Trauma seeks to find answers to problems encountered in clinical orthopaedics by studying the basic biology of bone in health and disease.

Questions include:

What causes osteoarthritis?

What causes the loss of bone around orthopaedic prostheses, leading to their eventual failure?
Why do cancers in bone cause loss of bone and how can these cancers be treated?

Since our understanding of the factors that control human bone turnover is still incomplete, it is essential for us to obtain a better basic understanding of the biology of the cell types that are responsible for bone formation (osteoblasts) and bone removal (osteoclasts). We are therefore studying the formation and activity of human osteoclasts and the factors that regulate these processes.

Although much of this work is performed by growing cells artificially in culture, we consider it very important to investigate how the results obtained match with events within the human bone itself, and we have designed experiments to address this question. This work has yielded very exciting data, which we believe will shed light on the aetiology of osteoarthritis. We are also investigating new ways to kill cancer cells, focusing largely on cancers of bone. This involves study of a new molecule called TRAIL, and how it partners with other molecules to cause death of cancer cells, with little attendant toxicity to normal cells.

For more information on the staff, projects and publications of the Orthopaedic Cell Biology Laboratory:
http://www.hansoninstitute.sa.gov.au/rbj_ortho.htm

Professor David Findlay
Co-Director of Research
Director of Program

Email: david.findlay@adelaide.edu.au

Location:
Hanson Institute, Level 2, Orthopaedic Bone Cell Laboratory.

Staff:
Dr Gerald Atkins, Dr Andreas Evdokiou, Shelley Hay, Katie Welldon

Students:
Thai Le Minh, Agatha Labrinidis, Hayley Salvemini, Kencana Dhamapatni (Dept Pathology), Simon Vanlint (Master of Medical Science degree by research, Dept of General Practice).