Departmental seminars are not news on the USF Health campus. They happen nearly everyday. But an upcoming Department of Molecular Medicine seminar will feature a College of Medicine alumnus working on a promising discovery could be a new treatment option for osteoporosis, cancer-related bone disease, and other bone loss conditions.

Scott Simonet, executive director of research and interim head of the Metabolic Therapeutic Area at Amgen, will speak on the topic From Genomics Discovery of OPG and RANKL to Development of Denosumab: The Future of Targeting the Osteoclast for Bone Therapy, at noon on Monday, Oct. 6, in MDC 1003. Simonet, a 1988 PhD graduate of the USF College of Medicine, is a former student of Gene Ness, PhD, professor of molecular medicine. His highly cited research was featured in the August issue of The Scientist.

While working in the mid ‘90s at Amgen, a leading human therapeutics company in the biotechnology industry, Simonet discovered a protein that promoted bone growth in transgenic mice. He named the protein osteoprotegerin (OPG), which is Latin for “the bone protector.” Simonet further demonstrated that OPG works through RANKL (Receptor Activator for Nuclear Factor-B Ligand), a pathway essential in the differentiation of osteoclasts – bone-marrow-derived cells that dissolve bony tissue. The balance between OPG and RANKL is a critical regulator of bone mass.

Simonet’s team at Amgen developed a human monoclonal antibody called “denosumab” to directly destroy RANKL. More than 20,000 patients have been involved in the clinical studies needed to obtain FDA approval for the drug. Results of a head-to-head Phase 3 trial released this month showed that denosumab outperformed the current leading osteoporosis drug Fosamax in postmenopausal women.

“Scott’s work is a great example of how an observation made with transgenic mice can ultimately lead to a promising therapy to promote bone growth,” Dr. Ness said. “It takes someone with a prepared mind who is unafraid of failure and can recognize potential applications.”

Newsbrief by Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications