Urszula Iwaniec
Oregon State University, OR·Physiology
Healthy bone is constantly broken down and rebuilt, a process called remodeling. When this balance tips toward loss, bones become weak and break easily, a major problem for older adults.
- Fields
Physiology
Microbiology & Immunology
Biology
- Topics
bone remodeling
bone loss
osteoporosis
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Measure bone mass, density, microarchitecture and turnover in iliac crest biopsies from male and female rhesus macaques given free access to alcohol for 7 or 15 months.
- Compare these results with iliac crest biopsies from men and women who chronically abused alcohol before sudden death, testing how well the monkey model reflects human bone.
- Determine whether leptin signaling through its receptor OB-R on immune cells drives bone growth and turnover, by giving mice stem cells with or without OB-R.
- Test which immune cell subsets with OB-R promote inflammation-driven bone loss, using a polyethylene particle implant model and mice lacking monocytes, T cells, B cells or mast cells.
More about the research
These projects study two forces that can disrupt the balance: heavy alcohol use and leptin, a hormone made by fat tissue that also acts on immune cells and bone.
Why it matters
Fractures in older adults carry large personal and economic costs. This work could guide treatments that prevent or reverse bone damage in people who drink heavily, and confirm that monkeys are a reliable model for testing them. Understanding leptin's immune pathway could point to therapies that block inflammation-driven bone loss, including loosening around joint implants, without losing leptin's benefits for bone.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Carol Everson
Medical College of Wisconsin, WI·Physiology
Test whether chronic sleep restriction after skeletal maturity impairs bone remodeling and increases fragility, by sleep-restricting male and female rats for 10 weeks and measuring bone strength, structure and cellular features.
Erin Taylor
Augusta University, GA·Physiology
Test whether extra visceral fat worsens lupus and hypertension through harmful immune cells in fat, by surgically or pharmacologically depleting fat or its immune cells in female NZBWF1 mice.
Madhumathi Rao
University of Kentucky, KY·Medicine & Clinical Research
Test whether women with low-turnover, age-related osteoporosis gain more bone mineral density over one year on teriparatide, a bone-building drug, than on standard alendronate, using a randomized comparison and DXA bone scans.
The school
Oregon State University: 29 labs on PI Pages, $372M a year on research, 238 research doctorates a year.
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