Baton Rouge site:

3870 Convention ST
Baton Rouge, LA 70806
Phone:  225-381-2721
Email: bonestudybatonrouge@tulane.edu 

Personnel:

 Yongjun Liu, MD, PhD, (Director)

  New Orleans site:

• Sharon Yin (Site Director), MS, (Certified Clinical Research Coordinator
• Ping Yu, Medical Technician
• Shiying Bian, MD, Medical Research Technician
• Yan Kang, Medical Technician
• Nicole Lassair, MS, Clinical Protocol Technician
• Karen Conroy, RN, Phlebotomist

  Baton Rouge site:

• Na Yu (Site Director), MD, PhD, Associate Analyst
• Ting Xu, MD, Medical Technician
• Li Liao, MS, Medical Technician
• Ye An, MD, Medical Technician

 Major Equipment and Facilities:

• Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) machine - Hologic Discovery A System
• Phlebotomy
• Muscle strength measurement

Participants Needed for the following projects:

  1. Louisiana Osteoporosis Study

1) Recruitment Aim:  To recruit ~20,000 human subjects in New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas. To build a large sample pool for clinical, genetic epidemiology, functional genomic, epigenomics, and proteomics studies of osteoporosis and related health problems.

              2) Inclusion criteria:

• Caucasians of European origin, African Americans, Latinos, or Asians;
• Be ≥ 18 years of age;
• Be willing to participate in the study and attend exam for bone densitometry, muscle strength measurements and blood draw (20ml). 

              3) Compensation: $25 (gift card) for a one-time visit

  2.  Genomic Convergence for Female Osteoporosis Risk Genes

1) Recruitment Aim: To recruit and phenotype 80 females based on low and high BMD values and menopause status for a genomic study of female osteoporosis.

2) Inclusion criteria:

• Caucasian females, age 50-55;
• Meet the exclusion criteria (for detail contact our coordinator)
• Be willing to attend the scheduled exam for bone densitometry;
• Be willing to donate 130ml (~4.4 ounces) of blood;
• Be willing to donate 20ml (4 teaspoons) of bone marrow in a 2nd visit.

3) Exclusion criteria

4) Compensation: $300

  3. Identification of proteins important for male osteoporosis

1) Recruitment Aim: To recruit and phenotypeselected 120 males at peak bone mass ages of 25-50 based on low and high hip BMD values; half will have high and another half will have low BMD values. Isolate bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) and peripheral blood monocytes (PBMs) from each subject.

             2) Inclusion criteria:

• Caucasian males, age 50-55;
• Meet the exclusion criteria (for detail contact our coordinator);
• Be willing to attend the scheduled exam for bone mass measurement;
• Be willing to donate 120ml (4 ounces) of blood;
• Be willing to donate 20ml (4 teaspoons) of bone marrow in a 2nd visit.
• Compensation: $250

 4. Robust and powerful test of candidate genes to bone mass

1) Recruitment Aim: Recruit and Phenotype 2900 unrelated Caucasian subjects for a candidate gene study of bone mass.

2) Inclusion criteria:

• Caucasians of European origin;
• Be ≥ 25 years of age
• Be willing to participate in the study and attend the scheduled clinic exams such as bone densitometry measurement and donate 20 ml blood.

3) Compensation: $25 (gift card) for a one-time visit.