Centre for Genomic & Experimental Medicine
Centre for Genomic & Experimental Medicine

Omar Albagha Research Group

Genetic Determinants of Bone disease

Section: Genetic and Experimental Medicine

Omar Albagha
Dr Omar Albagha - Reader in Genetics

Research in a Nutshell

Osteoporosis is a common bone disease characterised by reduction in bone density leading to increased risk of fracture. The disease affects mostly women over the age of 60 years. Paget’s disease of bone is another common bone disease affecting up to 1% of people over the age of 55 years and it is characterised by focal areas of increased bone turnover leading to symptoms of bone pain, deformity, and increased risk of fracture. My research is aimed at defining the genetic factors that makes certain people at risk of developing osteoporosis and Paget’s disease of bone using state of the art genetic mapping techniques and to perform functional studies on the identified genetic factors to understand how they lead to the development of the disease. The findings of my studies will increase our understanding of disease mechanism and may define new molecular pathways that could be useful in designing new treatments and in case of Paget’s disease; the identified genetic markers could be useful clinically in predicting the disease severity.

Research Programme

 

Omar Albagha group

People

Dr Omar Albagha Group Leader
Sachin Wani Research Assistant/PhD student
Ariane Willems Postdoctoral Scientist

Contact

omar.albagha@igmm.ed.ac.uk

Collaborations

  • Professor Stuart Ralston, University of Edinburgh 
  • Professor Donald Salter, University of Edinburgh 
  • The GEFOS consortium

Partners and Funders

  • European Research Council
  • Paget’s Association
  • Medical Research Council

Scientific Themes

Bone biology, GWAS, Gene identification, research models, osteoclastogenesis.

Technology Expertise

Genome wide association studies, disease gene identification, animal models of bone disease.