Texas Biomed Science Report 2011-2012 - Texas Biomedical ...

Lorena M. Havill, Ph.D.
Associate Scientist, Genetics
Havill and her team investigate variation in risk of two common
aging-related diseases of the skeletal system: osteoporosis (“fragile bone
disease”) and osteoarthritis. These disorders are extremely common
age-related skeletal diseases, but their causes, and, consequently,
the ability to effectively prevent and treat them, remain elusive.
Osteoporosis involves loss of bone from the skeleton and changes
in the quality and arrangement of the remaining bone. The result
is a skeleton that is more likely to fracture, especially at the hip,
spine, and wrist. Osteoarthritis involves destruction of the joints of
the skeleton, resulting in the pain, stiffness, and limited mobility
that make this disease the leading cause of disability in the U.S.
Havill and her team apply molecular and statistical genetic methods
in studies of large extended pedigrees of baboons and humans to
determine the degree to which genes and sex differences are responsible
for variation in traits related to bone fragility and osteoarthritis
pathogenesis. Havill studies not only traditional indicators of bone
strength (such as bone density) but also more direct measures of
bone’s resistance to fracture and of variation in joint biomechanics
with engineers at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), using
mechanical testing of bone and joint specimens using the baboon
as a nonhuman primate model for human bone and joint health.
Her research program is built on novel study designs to 1) reveal the
fundamental biological mechanisms that underlie variation in risk of
osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, and 2) identify the specific genes that are
most important in disease risk. Her studies involve a holistic rather than
reductionist approach to disorders of skeletal aging that she believes is
2011–2012 Scientific Report
“Osteoporosis and osteoarthritis are public health priorities of immediate concern because of the individual
suffering and public health costs associated with these diseases, and because of the alarming rate at which
their incidence is increasing as the population ages. My laboratory uses Texas Biomed’s baboon colony,
ongoing family studies, and computing resources to identify the genes and biological processes that result in
high risk of these diseases and that protect from age-related skeletal disorders.”
Staff
Left to right: Jennifer Harris, Heather Coan,
Lorena Havill, Ahsan Choudary, Shayna Levine
Publications
• Havill LM, Mahaney MC, Binkley TL, Specker BL (2007) Effects of genes, sex, age, and
activity on BMC, bone size, and areal and volumetric BMD. J Bone Miner Res 22:737-46.
• Gourion-Arsiquaud S, Burket J, Havill LM, Dicarlo E, Doty S, Mendelsohn R, Ven Der Meulen
M, Boskey A (2009) Spatial variation in osteonal bone properties relative to tissue and
animal age. J Bone Miner Res 24:1271-81.
• Hansen HL, Bredbenner TL, Nicolella DP, Mahaney MC, Havill LM (2009) Cross-sectional
geometry of the femoral midshaft in baboons is heritable. Bone 45:892-7.
• Havill LM, Bredbenner TL, Burr DB, Nicolella DP, Turner CH, Mahaney MC (2010) Heritability
of lumbar trabecular bone mechanical properties in baboons. Bone 46:835-40.
• Bredbenner TL, Eliason TD, Potter RS, Mason RL, Havill LM, Nicolella DP (2010) Statistical
shape modeling describes variation in tibia and femur surface geometry between control
and incidence groups from the Osteoarthritis Initiative Database. J Biomech 43:1780-6.
essential to the significant advances in basic knowledge of these disease
processes that are required for more effective prevention and treatment.
She and her SwRI collaborator, Dan Nicolella, Ph.D., are developing
a “bone structural integrity profile” with the goal of providing a
new tool for assessing an individual’s risk of bone fracture, a risk
that increases with age and the start of osteoporosis. She ultimately
hopes to identify individuals who could benefit from early medical
intervention to reduce their risk of fracture. In another project, she
is studying osteoarthritis of the knee to gain much needed insight
into the biological changes that occur in the very early stages of
osteoarthritis, before significant joint destruction has occurred and
when medical intervention is most likely to be effective. With the
addition of postdoctoral fellow, Heather Coan, Ph.D., to her laboratory
this past year, Havill is expanding her osteoarthritis research program
to address the role of stem cells in osteoarthritis progression.
E For more information, please visit www.txbiomed.org/departments/
genetics/genetics-staff-bio?u=8
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