Congratulations to distinguished Professor Ian Reid and his team at the University of Auckland on the Health Research Council (NZ) funding announcement today for the ‘Mechanisms and management of musculoskeletal disease’.  Professor Reid is an endocrinologist specialising in bone disease who will lead the teams involved in the five projects that make up this research program.

The programme is titled “Mechanisms and Management of Musculoskeletal Disease”.  These projects have the potential to:

• establish an intervention that prevents osteoporotic fractures in those at intermediate risk, the group in whom most fractures occur;
• provide authoritative evidence regarding the role of calcium nutrition in bone and non-bone health, and determine whether diet and supplements are equivalent;
• determine whether more intensive gout management reduces bone erosion in what is the commonest form of inflammatory arthritis in older Māori and Pacific people;
• provide insight into the molecular mechanisms of bone loss with age, which might point to novel drug targets;
• provide bone tissue substitutes for use in repair of fractures and bone defects.

The latter project is primarily to increase patient welfare but could also provide major commercial opportunities.