Endocrine Abstracts

I received a clinical fellowship from the Medical Research Council to study osteoporosis at the University of Edinburgh in 1978. I furthered my clinical research training by working at the Mayo Clinic under the supervision of Dr B L Riggs where I worked for five years. I developed a number of new approaches for studying osteoporosis while at the Mayo Clinic including the use of stable (non-radioactive) isotopes to measure the absorption of calcium from food, the use of an infusion technique to measure the production of the active form of vitamin D, the measurement of bone density at the site in the wrist where fractures commonly occur (the ultradistal radius) and a height ratio approach to identifying vertebral fractures on radiographs of the spine. I began my training in endocrinology and diabetes at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh in 1980 and continued it at Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow in 1982 and at the Mayo Clinic in 1987.

I joined the Department of Human Metabolism and Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield in 1989 as a Senior Research Fellow. I set up a metabolic bone service at the Northern General Hospital and am an Honorary NHS Consultant. I became Professor of Bone Metabolism in 1995 and received funding from the Arthritis Research Campaign to use biochemical tests of bone turnover to better understand the way in which older men and women develop osteoporosis and propensity to fracture. My studies on the cause, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of osteoporosis have been conducted with the support of many colleagues; I have supervised the study for 37 doctoral degrees over the past 30 years. I have published over 550 research papers.

I am currently Director of the Mellanby Centre based at the University of Sheffield. I became an NIHR Senior Investigator in 2009. Some of my recent contributions have been authorship on key papers describing new treatments for osteoporosis, such as tibolone, zoledronic acid, denosumab and lasofoxifene as well as addressing issues about safety of medications and provide guidelines to diagnose primary hyperparathyroidism, a common disorder resulting in high levels of blood calcium. My work as a clinical investigator was recognised in 2014, by the Frederick C Bartter Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.