Euroclast will provide training for 11 early stage researchers in basic cell biological approaches and techniques while focusing on questions about osteoclast biology in the context of osteoclast-driven diseases.
What are the questions Euroclast will address?
With the combined expertise of the research groups in Euroclast and their state-of-the-art facilities we can for the first time ask the following questions:
1. Are all osteoclasts the same, or are there different populations of osteoclasts, for example in different types of bones, or in different types of disease?
Knowing this is important as it could influence how we understand and treat diseases caused by osteoclasts at different sites in our skeleton, or in different disease conditions.
2. How exactly do osteoclasts work? What are the precise enzymes they use to break down the soft-tissue component of bone in different populations of osteoclasts?
There are already indications that osteoclasts in different bony sites preferentially use different enzymes. We need to more fully understand how osteoclasts work to be able to influence their activity in disease states.
3. How do osteoclasts transport the enzymes and the acid they use to break down bone through the cell and out of the cell and how do they traffic the broken down bone through the cell to be secreted into the blood stream?
Basic knowledge in this area is important to more fully understand how osteoclasts are so uniquely able to resorb mineralised tissues.
4. Do osteoclasts signal to osteoblasts to increase bone formation?
Understanding how osteoclasts influence osteoblasts to make more bone could lead to new ways to treat patients that suffer from low bone mass, such as in osteoporosis.
Read more about osteoclasts and the specific projects in Euroclast