Overview
Osteoporosis and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease are two chronic conditions most prominently manifested in aging people. The World Health Organization Office of Maternal and Child Health, Adolescence and Aging has begun to take an interest in non-communicable diseases, or NCD.
As part of their initiative, Dr Gordon Klein has been asked to co-lead a 7-person working group, mainly based in Australia, to gather epidemiologic as well as pathophysiologic evidence that links these two conditions. Dr Klein's specific role in this effort is to construct a model showing how each of the two co-morbid conditions can set in motion organ dysfunction that can result in the occurrence of the other.
The result of this effort, demonstrating the feasibility of transition from one condition to the other, suggests that these conditions are in fact not restricted to their initial organ systems, i.e., musculoskeletal in the case of osteoporosis, and cardiovascular in the case of atherosclerosis. He proposes to describe these model pathways that have been derived both from his previous research and from a comprehensive search of the literature, based on a scoping review of over 6000 publications in four different databases. Based on the epidemiologic and pathophysiologic evidence, Dr Klein's group will propose certain novel screening and possible preventative measures that he will describe at the conclusion of his talk.
Speaker
Dr Gordon Klein began his research career at Wolfson, when it was University College, some 56 years ago. The work he was involved in then, in the Department of Investigative Medicine, will figure in his current talk, as will the influence of his occasional laboratory supervisor, Edward de Bono, with Bono's emphasis on “lateral thinking”.
His current position is Professor of Research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He has held several positions here since 1986. After Cambridge, Dr Klein did post-doctoral pediatric residency training at Stanford with additional research and clinical training at Johns Hopkins and the University of California, Los Angeles. He held faculty positions at Tulane University in New Orleans before coming to his present institution.
The current thrust of his research deals with how organ systems communicate with one another, but he has also had an active interest in Global Health, having spent time doing research and teaching in Peru, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Haiti. He has served as a consultant to various agencies of the US government (at a time when they were reliable), including the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the United States Pharmacopeia.
Dr Klein is also a section editor-in-chief of the journal Endocrines, indexed in Web of Science Emerging Sources and Scopus, since 2021, and serves on various Editorial Boards. His current work with the World Health Organization dates back to 2024 and would appear to bring together all of his academic interests. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
Details
Organised by the Wolfson Medic Society in collaboration with Wolfson College Research Networks, this event is open to all and free to attend - please book your place.
Access
This event will take place in the Lee Hall which has step-free access and an accessible toilet.
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact our events team - events@wolfson.cam.ac.uk
Wolfson College Research Networks
The Wolfson College Research Networks are the College’s central hub for research activity, fostering excellence in learning, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Organising and curating a diverse programme of academic events, the Research Networks support the College’s research hubs and initiatives, and facilitates knowledge exchange by connecting scholars across disciplines within Wolfson, the wider University, and industry.
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