Grant: Undergraduate: Mobility, musculoskeletal health and arthritis - ICS

Over the last several years, the Underhill laboratory has been investigating the basic mechanisms that regulate cartilage and bone formation. These studies have led them to focus on a gene called Hypermethylated in cancer 1 (Hic1) which is expressed in the developing and adult skeleton. Mice deficient for this gene present with a number of skeletal defects. The major goal of my project is to examine the function of this gene in bone progenitor cells. These cells will be collected from the bones of wild-type and Hic1-deficient mice, and the behaviour of these cells will be followed in a number of assays. The information obtained from these studies is expected to improve our understanding of bone regeneration, and thus aid development of therapeutics for the treatment of bone disease and trauma.