Shriners St. Louis receives $3.1M NIH grant to test in utero therapy for brittle bone disease prevention

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded $3.1 million to Shriners Children’s St. Louis to advance prenatal treatment research for osteogenesis imperfecta–commonly known as brittle bone disease. The five-year project, in collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Missouri, will study whether blocking in utero myostatin (a protein that regulates skeletal muscle development) can strengthen bone and muscle before birth. The research aims to reduce lifelong fracture risk for children with the disorder while also exploring potential benefits for maternal bone health during pregnancy and lactation.