Ari Elson

Background

About Ari Elson

Degradation of bone matrix is a normal and essential part of how we keep our bones - and us – healthy. Changes in bone degradation can cause loss of bone in diseases such as osteoporosis and cancer, or morbid gain of bone mass as in osteopetrosis. Bones are degraded by specialized phagocytic cells – osteoclasts. We study how these cells are formed, how they function, and the consequences of their abnormally increased or decreased activity in disease. We study these topics at the molecular, cellular, and whole-organism levels, including approaches such as production of genetically-engineered models, large-scale transcriptomics and proteomics. Scientific homepage: JOB OFFER: We are searching for talented post-doctoral research associates and for students (for the MSc and PhD degrees) for projects that focus on molecular mechanisms that regulate cell-cell fusion, a critical aspect of osteoclast formation.