Doctoral Student Works Toward a Potential Treatment for Bone Loss

Someday, we may be able to regrow bone using a protein that is already inside each of us. Ahmad Almehmadi PERIO 15 is studying the effect of VWC2 protein on calvarial (skull) bone formation under the guidance of Associate Professor Dr. Yoshiyuki Mochida.

“We are learning how this protein works and how it induces bone formation,” he says. “We already know that VWC2 increases bone formation and now we want to know how it does it—how it affects bone forming cells and their growth,” he says.

His new research won him the Craniofacial Biology Award at the International Association for Dental Research General Session & Exhibition in Brazil in June 2012.

“As periodontists we work with bone tissue so the idea of having a new way to regenerate bone loss is fascinating to me,” Almehmadi says.

Almehmadi previously showed that VWC2 protein is present in bone forming cells and has the ability to increase bone formation in mouse bone tissue. He won the Dean’s Award for this research at Boston University’s Science & Engineering Research Symposium in March 2012.

He thanks Dr. Mochida for his constant support and guidance. “He’s always there for me to have a discussion about advancing my research outcomes.”

Dean Jeffrey W. Hutter says, “I congratulate both Ahmad Almehmad and his mentor Dr. Mochida on their success thus far and look forward to their future contributions to this very relevant and important area of research.”