Osteoporosis Genetics

Dear Colleagues,

Osteoporosis is a major and growing worldwide public health burden that has not been adequately addressed. A treatment gap was recently thrust into the headlines. Due to fears of side effects, the use of osteoporosis drugs has fallen by as much as 50%, and the decade-long trend in declining hip fracture incidence is beginning to reverse. Because the pipeline for new osteoporosis drugs is virtually non-existent, new approaches to drug discovery are needed. The discovery of causal genetic variants and the targeted genes of osteoporosis will considerably expand our understanding of biological mechanisms that underlie skeletal integrity and create opportunities for new diagnostics and drug targets necessary for a personalized approach to osteoporosis.

Genes is launching a special issue on Osteoporosis Genetics and welcomes reviews and new research articles on the following topics:  

1. Genome-wide association and phenome-wide association studies on skeletal phenotypes;
2. CRISPR gene editing screening of genes involved in skeletal biology;
3. Functional assessment of genes involved in skeletal biology in cellular and/or animal models;
4. Pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics in osteoporosis/osteoporotic fracture;
5. Mechanisms of pathogenesis and pathophysiology of atypical femoral fracture (AFF) and osteonecrosis of the jaw;
6. Pleiotropic genetics of the COVID-19 and osteoporosis/osteoporotic fractures;
7. Molecular subtypes of osteoporosis and relevant traits;
8. Single-cell omics (transcriptomics, proteomics, and epigenomics) and proteomics on bone cells to elucidate the etiology of osteoporosis and relevant traits;
9. AI deep learning and bioinformatics approaches to understand the pathophysiology of osteoporosis and relevant traits;
10. Polygenic risk score prediction and Mendelian randomization causal inference in osteoporosis and relevant traits.

We encourage you to submit your original research articles and short reviews for consideration. Authors can count on fast and high-quality reviews, and our reviewers and editors will provide constructive and encouraging feedback.

Dr. Yi-Hsiang Hsu
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Genes is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• osteoporosis osteoporotic fracture
• atypical femoral fracture (AFF) and osteonecrosis of the jaw
• GWAS
• pharmacogenomics
• functional genomics
• CRISPR gene editing
• single cell omics
• COVID-19
• polygenic risk score