The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has landed a $2.4 million grant to study mechanisms that could be manipulated to improve bone formation and bone strength in aging populations and in people with brittle bone disease. This process is thought to be inadequate in both aging and osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a genetic disorder commonly known as brittle bone disease. The reason people lose bone as they age is that the process becomes unbalanced — more bone is removed than replaced. “One factor contributing to this imbalance is an age-related decline in bone formation,” she added. “We aim to identify the reasons why bone formation declines with age, so we can reverse those cellular processes and halt osteoporosis.