Strides For Strong Bones, Spokane
West Coast Bone Health TeleECHO 
Medical Director, Lynn Kohlmeier, MD

THIS Session: Wednesday, March 5, 2025
5:30 pm – 6:30 pm (Pacific Time)

Topic: Muscle and Bone in Hypophosphatasia (HPP): Learning from Animal Models.

Speaker: Dana Gaddy, PhD

Professor, Veterinary Integrative Biosciences School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and Adjunct Professor, Veterinary Physiology and Pharmacology School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas.

Dr Gaddy received her undergraduate degrees in Biology and Chemistry at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and her M.S. in Zoology at Texas A&M University. She received her Ph.D. in Cell Biology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and did her post-doctoral fellowship at Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, California. She returned to University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and was Professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics there until she returned to Texas A&M in 2015.

Dr Gaddy’s laboratory has been engaged in NIH-funded musculoskeletal research for almost 30 years, and were the first to identify non-steroidal gonadal inhibin hormones in the regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal-skeletal axis in mice, as well as the role of inhibins in signaling the onset of menopause leading to an increase in bone turnover. They have generated the first large animal model of hypophosphatasia (HPP) and are investigating the etiology of mineralization deficiencies, muscle weakness and premature tooth loss associated with this condition.