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Schipani Lab

The Schipani Laboratory has a long-standing interest in the study of cartilage and bone development. Over the years, we have used cartilage and bone tissues as models to establish essential principles in the broader fields of G-protein coupled receptors and hypoxia biology.

Early in her career, Dr. Schipani cloned the human PTH/PTHrP receptor (PTHR1) and its gene, and discovered that gain-of-function mutations of PTHR1 cause Jansen Metaphyseal Chondrodysplasia (JMC), a severe form of short-limbed dwarfism associated to hypercalcemia. JMC has been one of the first examples in the literature of a human disease being caused by a constitutively active G-protein coupled receptor. Analysis of mutant mice generated using those mutations have contributed to shape up our current understanding of the role of osteoblastic PTHR1 in skeletal development and homeostasis, and hematopoiesis.

Dr. Schipani next pioneered the notion that gradients of oxygen control tissue morphogenesis during skeletal development. Oxygen is not only an essential metabolic substrate in numerous enzymatic reactions, including mitochondrial respiration, but also a regulatory signal. The Schipani laboratory studies the role of hypoxia-driven pathways in skeletal development with the overall goal of unveiling both novel aspects of the cellular adaptation to hypoxia and new avenues for the treatment of cartilage and bone diseases. We use genetically modified mice as a model organism and we analyze their phenotypes with a variety of in vivo, ex-vivo and in vitro assays.

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News

Dr. Schipani interviewed in Science article
October 13, 2023
Dr. Schipani was interviewed by Science to comment on a recent Nature article about hemoglobin in chondrocytes. Check it out!

https://www.science.org/content/article/more-red-blood-cells-depend-hemoglobin-surprising-study-cartilage-reveals#:~:text=The%20authors%20%E2%80%9Cprovide%20solid%20and,t%20connected%20to%20the%20research

Giulia to present at ASBMR
September 20, 2023
Giulia Lanzolla will present her poster titled "Pharmacological inhibition of HIF2 prevents trabecular bone loss in ovariectomized mice" at the 2023 ASMBR conference.

Congratulations Elena!
September 01, 2023
Elena Sabini is now a Research Associate in the Schipani Lab!

Mohd Khan a hit at ASBMR 2023!
August 04, 2023
Mohd's abstract has been selected as a talk at the ASBMR 2023 annual meeting and he has been awarded a Mid-career Faculty Travel Grant as well! In October he will present his work titled "Loss of TFAM in PRX1 lineage cells causes an Osteogenesis Imperfecta-like phenotype and increased HIF1a activity prevents it".

https://www.asbmr.org/annual-meeting

Schipani Lab Awarded NIH R01 grant
March 13, 2023
The Schipani Lab was awarded a R01 grant from the NIH to study the effects of HIF-1 during the process of somitogenesis!

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