Sarah Dallas
University of Missouri-Kansas City, MO·Physiology
Bone is constantly rebuilt. Osteoblasts lay down new bone, and osteoclasts break old bone down.
- Fields
Physiology
Biology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
bone remodeling
osteoporosis
osteoblast
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Determine how osteoblast movement, differentiation and fate are tied to collagen assembly and mineralization, using live-cell and intravital imaging of mice with GFP-tagged type I collagen and bone-lineage fluorescent reporters.
- Test how osteogenic factors change the dynamics of collagen assembly and of osteoblasts becoming embedded osteocytes, by imaging GFP-collagen and tdTomato reporter cells over time in culture and in live mice.
- Define how osteoclasts resorb bone, interact with osteocytes and what becomes of them afterward. Use intravital imaging to compare responses to RANKL, a signal that drives resorption, and OPG-Fc, a RANKL inhibitor.
- Link each imaged cell's behavior history to its gene expression by applying 3D multiplexed imaging to spatially map single-cell RNA sequencing profiles in the same bones, to find pathways driving osteocyte differentiation and osteoclast activation.
More about the research
When breakdown outpaces building, bones become thin and fragile, as in osteoporosis. Much is known about the genes that control these cells. Few studies, however, have watched bone being built and removed in real time, in living cells or living animals.
Why it matters
Osteoporosis is a major clinical problem caused by bone breakdown outpacing bone formation. Watching in real time how drugs used to treat osteoporosis change bone-cell behavior could clarify how these treatments work, including what happens when a resorption-blocking drug is stopped. The findings may also inform understanding and treatment of osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and other metabolic bone diseases.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Eben Estell
University of New England, ME·Physiology·Early-career
Map the signaling pathway irisin triggers inside osteoclasts, the bone-dissolving cells, by confirming candidate receptors including integrin αVβ5 and tracking the intracellular steps that lead to differentiation and resorption in culture.
Amjad Javed
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Biology
Measure natural Runx2 protein levels and stability in skeletal tissues of mice lacking Sp7, a bone-specific transcription factor, to test whether Sp7 is needed to keep Runx2 protein stable.
Thiagarajan Ganesh
University of Missouri-Kansas City, MO·Biomedical Engineering
Develop multiplexed confocal imaging models of osteocytes and their dendritic networks in loaded and unloaded mouse bone to predict how these cells respond to altered mechanical loads with aging.
The school
University of Missouri-Kansas City: 7 labs on PI Pages, $57M a year on research, 94 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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