Marcus and Feldman's Osteoporosis

David W. Dempster, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University in New York. He obtained his PhD from the University of Glasgow in Scotland and completed postdoctoral studies in Switzerland and France. Dr. Dempster is a Past President of the International Society of Bone Morphometry and a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the National Osteoporosis Foundation. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society. Dr. Dempster's iconic micrographs of osteoporotic bone have been widely reproduced in the scientific and popular press, including being displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Dr. Dempster is an Associate Editor of Osteoporosis International, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, Bone and the Journal of Clinical Densitometry. His research studies have been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health for the past 25 years. Dr. Dempster has published over 200 research papers on the pathophysiology and treatment of bone disese. Dr. Cauley, DrPH, is a Distinguished Professor and Executive Vice Chair, Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). Her primary research interest is the epidemiology of osteoporosis especially the large worldwide ethnic and geographic variability in fracture, osteoporosis screening and treatment, risk factors for fractures and the consequences of osteoporosis in both men and women. Her research has also focused on women's health and aging, falls, the interaction between endogenous and exogenous hormones, risk factors, and disease outcomes. She was principal investigator for several large cohort studies including the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) and the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) study. She is a co-investigator for the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN) with particular emphases on skeletal health and physical function and body composition changes, novel measures of hip strength and the trabecular bone score across menopause. She initiated breast cancer follow-up in SOF and was the first to demonstrate an association between bone mineral density (BMD) and breast cancer, suggesting that BMD could be used as a cumulative measure of lifetime exposure to estrogen.
Dr. Cauley has authored more than 800 papers for scientific journals and 28, book chapters. She co-edited a book entitled the Epidemiology of Aging, published in 2012. Mary L. Bouxsein, PhD is Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Advanced Orthopedic Studies at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Her group has focused on understanding the biomechanics of skeletal fragility, including age-related fractures and stress fractures due to novel physical activity. Her team aims to gain insight into the contribution of mechanical loading to fracture risk via advanced subject-specific musculoskeletal modeling. She has used non-invasive imaging technologies to characterize bone microstructure in animal models and in humans, and has show the contribution of bone microstructure to skeletal fragility in several clinical scenarios. In addition, her group has studied the impact of unloading and microgravity on the musculoskeletal system. Dr. Bouxsein is a Fellow of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, and has served on the Council of the ASBMR and the Board of the International Osteoporosis Foundation. She has received funding from the NIH, NASA and the Department of Defense. Dr. Bouxsein has published over 350 peer-reviewed manuscripts. Felicia Cosman is Professor of Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Co-Editor in Chief of Osteoporosis International. Dr. Cosman was funded by the NIH through a Specialized Center of Research Program and subsequent individual NIH awards for 30 years and has had grants from the Department of Defense, industry and several foundations and societies. She has published over 170 peer-reviewed papers and over 50 book chapters.
In her early research, she utilized dynamic tests of the PTH/Vitamin D axis to investigate effects of menopause, estrogen, and selective estrogen receptor agonists and also to study racial differences in skeletal metabolism. She studied interrelationships among MS, vitamin D deficiency and glucocorticoids, and evaluated causes of stress fractures and peak bone mass accrual in military cadets attending USMA. She also studied vertebral fracture prevalence in the US using dual x-ray based vertebral fracture assessment in an NHANES population. Throughout her career, she has investigated many pharmaceutical agents, including a series of studies on the efficacy and safety of zoledronic acid and the duration and potency of its effects after discontinuation.
The main focus of her research has been in the clinical use of anabolic medications for osteoporosis treatment. She has studied teriparatide action using biochemical markers of bone turnover, bone density, central and peripheral computed tomography and finite element analysis as well transiliac crest bone biopsy. In a novel trial, she evaluated the early effect of teriparatide on the rate and location of bone formation in the human femoral neck in patients undergoing total hip replacement for arthritis. She has investigated cyclic, combination and sequential regimens of terriparatide and antiresorptive agents, including alendronate, raloxifene, zoledronic acid and denosumab. She has been a participant in studies evaluating novel PTH formulations and delivery systems and experimental anabolic agents. She was a lead investigator on pivotal studies of abaloparatide and romosozumab and evaluations of the influence of early bone density gains on the persistent effect against fracture.
Dr. Cosman is known for advocating early use of anabolic agents in high-risk patients, optimizing treatment sequences, rotating therapies in long-term treatment strategies and considering therapeutic goals for osteoporosis management. She has been a participant on multiple ASBMR task forces and NIH workshops, and many other advisory committees. She was NOF's Clinical Director for 20 years and lead author of the NOF Clinician's Guide in 2014. She has been the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Osteoporosis International since 2015 and has received multiple awards including the NOF Generations Award and the ACE Distinction in Endocrinology Award. In 2020, she was given the ASBMR 2020 Frederic C. Bartter Award for excellence in clinical research.