Philip Riches (Affiliate)

Exploring the pathogenesis of osteoporosis, and improving the care and understanding of gout

Research in a Nutshell

Dr Riches described the syndrome of osteoporosis caused by osteoprotegerin antibodies published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Current projects are exploring whether such antibodies contribute to osteoporosis in cohorts of patients with coeliac disease or idiopathic osteoporosis.

A separate theme of research has been to explore genetic influences on disease pathogenesis, with current work exploring the genetics of gout as well as genetic predictors of response to teriparatide in osteoporosis.

For this work he has received clinical case and new investigator awards from the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS) as well as an Innovation award from the British Society of Rheumatology and the Amgen ECTS Bone Biology Fellowship.

Contact

priches@staffmail.ed.ac.uk

Collaborations

• Associate Professor Tony Merriman, University of Otago, New Zealand 
• Professor Jack Satsangi, University of Edinburgh

Partners and Funders

• Coeliac UK Research Grant: ‘Osteoporosis in coeliac disease associated with novel autoantibodies; Jan 2013 for 3 years, P Riches (PI), J Satsangi, SH Ralston £80,756
• Chief Scientist Office, UK Research Grant: ‘Predicting therapeutic response to teriparatide therapy in osteoporosis by genetic profiling’ Aug 2015 for 18 months, N Alonso (PI), P Riches, SH Ralston  £210,150