Bone Cell Biology and Disease - PhD and honours Projects - The role of EphrinB2 signalling in bone remodelling
The role of EphrinB2 signalling in bone remodelling
Project Type
PhD/Honours
Summary
Supervisors: Dr Stephen Tonna, A/Prof Natalie Sims, Prof T Jack Martin
Tel: 9288 2480/ Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Ephs and Ephrins are a large family of receptors with roles in axon guidance, vascularisation, and cell motility. Recently we, and others, have shown that several members of this family can directly influence osteoblast and osteoclast differentiation. We have observed that inhibition of the specific interaction of EphrinB2 and EphB4 causes defects in both osteoblast and osteoclast differentiation.
This project will extend these novel observations of ephrinB2 loss of function through the following aims (1) characterize the phenotype of conditional ephrinb2 deletion in osteoblasts and osteocytes in bone (2) Validate gene expression changes in osteoblast-lineage cells deficient in EphrinB2 by genetic recombination (3) Determine changes in osteoblast cell function and movement induced by EphrinB2 and EphB4 deletion
Techniques to be used will include: cell culture techniques including isolation of primary cells, molecular biology (RNA isolation, quantitative Real-time PCR, shRNA generation and validation), Western blotting, histology, histomorphometry and micro-computed tomography.