The Geroscience & Osteosarcopenia – Biomedical, translational and clinical program is led by Professor Gustavo Duque.
This is a strong translational research program aimed to identify the mechanisms of age-related musculoskeletal diseases and frailty. This program focuses on the age-related changes in muscle and bone and their significance in the pathogenesis of sarcopenia, osteoporosis, osteosarcopenia and physical frailty.
The biomedical section of this program is dedicated to the understanding of age-related changes in mesenchymal stem cell differentiation and the mechanisms that explain their predominant differentiation into fat. This team also investigates the mechanisms of lipotoxicity in the pathogenesis of sarcopenia and osteoporosis, while looking at new potential therapeutic approaches to prevent this phenomenon. This program also involves the development and testing of new compounds in multiple animal models of accelerated ageing and osteosarcopenia.
Our clinical research team performs three set of activities:
- Our imaging team works on developing and testing new imaging techniques to quantify changes in the musculoskeletal system that are associated with sarcopenia, osteoporosis and osteosarcopenia, while also looking at optimisation of the imaging techniques that are currently available in the preclinical and clinical settings.
- Our Clinical Trials Unit oversees multiple phase II, III and IV clinical trials testing the effectiveness and safety of several new compounds aimed to treat osteoporosis, sarcopenia, frailty and osteosarcopenia.
- Our Clinical Interventions Unit is dedicated to the development of innovative models of care aimed to the treatment and prevention of falls, fractures and frailty in our older population.
Our translational team focuses on the development and testing of new biomarkers and therapies for osteoporosis, sarcopenia and osteosarcopenia. We have identified and validated several biomarkers for osteosarcopenia and frailty including circulating osteoprogenitors (COP) cells, quantified by flow cytometry, and fat quantification in muscle and bone using our new software for CT and MRI image analysis (Tissue Compass).
With several patents already obtained by our team members, our research activities focus on understanding the mechanism of action of new treatments with dual effect on muscle and bone, their potential therapeutic modalities, and completion of the preclinical validation of these compounds.
This research focuses on:
- Age-related bone and muscle loss
- Mesenchymal stem cell differentiation
- Lipotoxicity
- Bone anabolics
- Vitamin D
- Parathyroid hormone
- Mouse models of accelerated ageing, frailty and osteosarcopenia
- Sarcopenia
- Osteoporosis
- Frailty
- Osteosarcopenia
- Nutrition
- Fatty acids
- Falls
- Fractures
- Frailty
- Geriatric medicine
- Gait and balance gym
- Falls and fractures clinic
- Fracture prevention program
- Fracture liaison service
- Bisphosphonates
- Teriparatide
- pQCT
- Body composition
- Densitometry
- Balance
- Balance training
- Exercise
- Nursing homes
- Residential aged care
- Orthogeriatrics
- Hip protectors
- Whole body vibration
- Lumbar spinal stenosis
- Circulating osteoprogenitors
- Biomarkers
- Apoptosis
- Ageing
- Autophagy
- Osteogenic/myogenic pathways
- Adipogenesis
- Bone marrow fat
