PhD Studentship

Age-related bone loss: a role for functional genetic variants affecting a critical bone signalling pathway?

University of Aberdeen, UK (Drs Lynne Hocking & Julie Crockett)

Osteoporosis is associated with genetic variants in a signalling pathway critical for bone cell function but, as yet, the functional variants driving these associations have not been identified. In this project, you will identify and annotate genetic variation in key signalling pathway components (from Next Generation Sequencing data), and perform association studies in two large populations of women for whom bone density has been measured (n~4,500). You will then determine using in vitro assays what the effect of these variants are on cell signalling and bone cell function, in order to improve understanding of how these genetic variants contribute to osteoporosis. Further details can be found at www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=35544&LID=15