This achievement represents the fifth milestone reached by deCODE under the two companies' ongoing research alliance.
Osteoporosis is a disorder characterized by the progressive thinning and weakening of the bones.
It generally strikes people over the age of 50 and is four times more common in women than in men, making it one of the most prominent challenges for women's health worldwide. Given the progressive increase in life expectancy, osteoporotic bone fractures constitute an increasingly common medical problem. More than 300,000 hip fractures are recorded every year in the United States alone, and these numbers and the resulting costs in terms of both individual suffering and healthcare dollars are expected to increase dramatically in the years ahead. The mapping of the osteoporosis gene to a small chromosomal region is the result of a genome-wide screen conducted with the participation of 139 Icelandic families, including more than 430 patients and 600 unaffected relatives. This discovery marks a major advance toward identifying one of the genes that, if present in a variant form, contribute to this important disease.