Bone Therapeutics Laboratory

29/02/2024

To celebrate Rare Disease Day 2024, we are delighted to announce that the 3rd Australian Autoinflammatory Disease Symposium will be held from 16th-18th August 2024 in Brisbane, jointly with an Education Summit on Paediatric Rheumatology. We are honoured to co-organise the meeting in conjunction with Zoe's Angels, a non-profit organisation established to raise awareness and funds to help benefit the lives of children diagnosed with juvenile rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions. This year, over two and a half days, the meeting will focus on discovery science, clinical education and a dedicated session for patients & families. Please save the date, with more information (and registration details) to follow! We hope that you'll be able to join us for this exciting meeting, either in person or online.

28/02/2023

04/10/2022

After many years of work developing new lab models of the autoinflammatory disease mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD/HIDS), we are excited to publish the first findings in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Our research demonstrates that there is a threshold of mevalonate kinase enzyme activity in cells. If enzyme activity falls below this threshold there is a buildup of abnormal proteins that cause inflammation. A rise in body temperature exacerbates this effect, likely explaining why mild infection or stress (which can increase body temperature) often trigger inflammatory flares in individuals with MKD.

Groundbreaking research offers insights into understanding the inflammatory disorder mevalonate kinase deficiency, and reveals new potential treatment approaches for this devastating disease. http://ow.ly/JGGK50L0ppO

05/08/2022

August is Autoinflammatory Awareness Month. Join Prof Mike Rogers and Dr Marcia Munoz at the upcoming 2nd Australian Autoinflammatory Disease Symposium featuring a Q&A session with a panel of clinical experts for families and patients. https://www.aadry.org/symposium

15/06/2022

Important Announcement: 2nd Australian Autoinflammatory Disease Workshop, 29th Aug 2022 at WEHI, Melbourne

After postponing twice because of the pandemic, we are delighted to announce that the 2nd Australian Autoinflammatory Disease Workshop will be held at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne on Monday 29th August 2022. The draft program, and a link to register, can be found here: https://www.aadry.org/symposium. The meeting will be a hybrid format (in-person and online). Registration is free for online participants.

Similar to the symposium at the Garvan Institute in 2017, the meeting will provide an overview of the latest discoveries into the causes and treatment of autoinflammatory disorders, with plenary talks from Prof Marco Gattorno (Italy; President of the International Society of Autoinflammatory Diseases) and Dr Ivona Aksentijevich (USA; Inflammatory Disease Section/Clinical Genetics Service, NHGRI, NIH) as well as invited talks from Australian laboratory-based and clinical researchers. The final session of the day will be for patients and families, featuring a Q&A panel of clinical experts.

The 1st workshop was a great success and we hope that you will join us for this follow-up meeting.

29/03/2022

Congratulations on your PhD graduation, Dr Skinner! We are very proud of Ollie's achievements, including the Dean's Award for his thesis, titled "New insights into the link between protein prenylation and inflammation using models of mevalonate kinase deficiency".

04/03/2022

For the last 8 years (yes, research is a very, very slow process) we have been developing new laboratory models of mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD, or HIDS), with the goal of understanding exactly what causes the inflammatory flares and ultimately developing new and better treatments.
We are now in a position to start publishing this work and our discoveries, which we believe will give some exciting new insights into MKD. Here is a link to a "preprint" of our next research paper, with a disclaimer - this has not yet been peer-reviewed, but it's publicly available online so that anyone can read about the work that we are doing.
https://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2022.02.28.480959v1
If you would like to know more about our research on MKD/HIDS, please send me a direct message!

08/08/2021

Despite the current lockdown situation in Sydney, our research on MKD/HIDS is still very much ongoing and are we excited to be celebrating Autoinflammatory Awareness Month!

August is Autoinflammatory Awareness Month - a time for raising awareness and educating people about autoinflammatory diseases like Mevalonate Kinase Deficiency (MKD). Professor Mike Rogers and his lab focus on advancing our understanding of the molecular process that leads to inflammatory flares and aims to develop new and more effective therapies for MKD. Read about his lab's work here: http://ow.ly/9ocJ50FKIrR

04/03/2020

***SAVE THE DATE***
We are delighted to announce the 2nd Australian Workshop on Autoinflammatory Diseases, to be held at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, on 1st Sept 2020. Following on from the very successful inaugural Workshop at the Garvan Institute in 2017, this one-day meeting will be hosted by Dr Seth Masters and is a satellite meeting of the annual conference of ASCIA. The workshop will feature invited talks on the latest laboratory science and clinical aspects of autoinflammatory disorders, with a keynote lecture from Prof Marco Gattorno (Genoa, Italy), the President of the International Society of Systemic Autoinflammatory Diseases. The workshop will end with an interactive session for patients and families, featuring a question-and-answer discussion with a panel of expert clinicians.
More info to follow, please save the date and check the link below for updates.