Improving bone-building treatments for osteoporosis
Official title: Center of Research Translation on Osteoporosis Bone Anabolic Therapies
Funded at Massachusetts General Hospital · NIH-11260277 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This center looks at how current bone-building medicines work and why their benefit decreases over time for people with osteoporosis.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Massachusetts General Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | January 1, 2023 |
| Project end | December 31, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $1,227,524 |
| NIH project number | 5P50AR080596-04 |
| Project ID | NIH-11260277 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Adults with osteoporosis—especially those with severe disease, prior fractures, or who have used or are candidates for anabolic therapies like teriparatide, abaloparatide, or romosozumab—are the most likely candidates.
✕Less likely to help
People without osteoporosis, those at low fracture risk, or individuals ineligible for anabolic therapies may not receive direct benefit from this work.
What this research studies
If you join, you would be asked to share medical information, give samples, and have imaging and lab tests so researchers can see how your bones respond to anabolic medicines. The team will focus on drugs such as teriparatide, abaloparatide, and romosozumab to identify which cells and pathways they affect in people. Researchers at Mass General and partner institutions will combine clinical data, lab experiments, and bioinformatics to link patient results back to lab findings. The goal is to use those insights to make bone-building therapies work better and longer for patients.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could lead to treatments that rebuild bone more effectively or extend how long anabolic drugs help patients.
How similar studies have gone: Previous clinical trials show anabolic drugs can improve bone density and lower fracture risk, but why their effects wane over time is still unclear, so this center builds on known successes to uncover the mechanisms.
Where this research is happening
-
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Wein, Marc Nathan — Massachusetts General Hospital
- Study coordinator: Wein, Marc Nathan
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.