Well done to our postdoc Karen Cooke for having her presentation accepted for presentation at the upcoming 2026 UOW Early-to-Mid Career Researcher Conference held at the University of Wollongong in November this year. Karen will present a paper titled: Written in Bone: Interdisciplinary insights into Early Female Mortality and Socioeconomic Status in Histological Samples from Medieval England part of the sub-theme 2: Education, Policy and Social Transformation. In this presentation, Karen will discuss how we can use medieval bone histology/remodelling data to inform public health efforts on chronic health problems with a historical/archaeological perspective. 

Cooke KM, McFadden C, Mahoney P, Miszkiewicz JJ. Nov 2026. Written in Bone: Interdisciplinary insights into Early Female Mortality and Socioeconomic Status in Histological Samples from Medieval England. 2026 University of Wollongong Early-to-Mid Career Researcher Conference, Wollongong, Australia

PhD candidate Phoebe Meyrick delivered a research presentation today at the National Archaeology Student Conference, hosted at The University of Queensland in Brisbane. Her paper, “Medical intervention, healthcare, and social wellbeing in the W.D. Trotter Anatomy Museum: Case studies from colonial Otago, New Zealand,” explored how anatomical collections can be used to reconstruct lived experience, revealing evidence of medical treatment, social conditions, and bodily intervention in the colonial past. Phoebe’s work also foregrounds the critical issues of provenience, stewardship, and ethical research practice when working with historical anatomical specimens, contributing to ongoing discussions about responsible interpretation and the legacies of colonial medical history. Well done, Phoebe! 

This September, we welcomed Antony Joseph Cevallos Alava (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain) through the European Union–supported ICON SGroup Intercontinental Academic Exchange Programme. Antony became an active part of our broader research community at UQ, delivering a hands‑on bioarchaeological and forensic methods workshop for PhD, staff, and students that introduced detailed palaeopathological case studies from European archaeological contexts and trained participants in diagnostic approaches to skeletal disease. As part of the exchange, he also undertook specialist training in our microscopy lab focussed on analysis of archaeological bone. We are currently working on a publication examining bone remodelling change between archaeological and modern samples. 

As part of the launch of UQ’s Centre for Healthy Ageing Innovation (CHAI), Justyna was invited to present at the 2026 Applied Ageing Research Showcase. Her talk, “From social conditions to skeletal consequences: Tracing ancient bone metabolic mechanisms to inform healthy ageing today,” highlighted how microscopic features of ancient human bone can illuminate long‑term patterns of bone quality, osteoporosis risk, and the social and environmental factors that shape skeletal ageing.

Featuring this work alongside contemporary clinical, behavioural, and technological research highlighted CHAI’s commitment to interdisciplinary approaches that connect deep‑time evidence with modern challenges in healthy ageing.

Our group presented 7 papers at the 22nd IFAA Congress

We were proud to present a diverse suite of research at the 22nd Congress of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists, held in Melbourne in August 2026. Our team showcased work spanning ethical stewardship, methodological innovation, and new insights into skeletal biology and bone health.

We contributed two talks led by Justyna, including a presentation on ethical stewardship of ancient bone histology collections and another addressing persistent challenges in age estimation using human cortical bone histology. Together with PhD student Phoebe Meyrick and collaborator from the ANU, Laura Wilson, we also presented a systematic review examining how socioeconomic status shapes bone health across different regions and time periods. Our post-doc Karen Cooke explored systemic bone remodelling and its relevance for cancer differential diagnosis in ancient human remains.

Our group also highlighted several methodological advances. PhD student Tahlia Stewart, and  collaborators Eline Schotsmans, Gina McFarlane, Patrick Mahoney, presented two studies: one assessing variation in histological parameters across serial rib midshaft sections, and another comparing cortical microstructure between the rib and femur to better understand intra‑skeletal variation. A student Justyna is co-supervising at JCU, Lauren Michelman, along with her main supervisors, Kate Domett, Helen Anscomb, Alexandra Trollope, introduced a novel application of the Oxford Histological Index and collagen birefringence analysis across three preparation stages of donor skeletal material. 

Together, these presentations reflect our group’s commitment to advancing ethical practice, strengthening methodological rigour, and deepening interdisciplinary understanding in bone histology. We are delighted to have contributed to international discussions shaping the future of anatomical, archaeological, forensic, and biomedical research.

In our latest study, we explored a simple methodological question: does the way we calculate Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios influence our interpretation of bone remodelling activity? As it turns out, the answer is yes. A small difference in analytical approach can produce noticeably different biological conclusions.

Why study Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios?
Bone is constantly being renewed through the activity of Basic Multicellular Units (BMUs), which remove old bone and replace it with new tissue. In cortical bone, this process creates secondary osteons surrounding central Haversian canals. The relative size of these structures provides valuable information about bone remodelling, bone quality, and conditions associated with ageing, disease, biomechanics, and lifestyle. Researchers often use the ratio of Haversian canal area to secondary osteon area as an indicator of the balance between bone resorption and bone formation. Higher ratios generally suggest proportionally larger canal space and less lamellar bone deposition, while lower ratios indicate relatively greater bone formation.

Two common ways to calculate the ratio
We compared two methods commonly used in histological research. Pooling involves measuring all Haversian canals and osteons separately, calculating the mean for each, and then deriving a ratio from those averages. Pairing involves measuring each Haversian canal together with its corresponding osteon, calculating an individual ratio for every remodelling event, and then averaging those ratios. Although both methods aim to describe the same biological process, they are mathematically distinct and do not necessarily yield the same result.

What we did
To investigate this issue, we analysed 551 secondary osteons from femoral midshaft histology slides representing 38 young and middle-aged women from a medieval English skeletal collection. We then calculated Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios using both pooling and pairing approaches and compared the outcomes statistically. 

What we found
Across the sample, the pooling method generally produced lower ratio values than the pairing method. This pattern was observed not only in the full sample but also across age and socioeconomic subgroups. Importantly, the differences between methods were statistically significant and were not explained by the number of osteons measured in each individual. These findings suggest that the choice of averaging technique can directly affect how we interpret bone remodelling. In many cases, pooling implied thicker lamellar bone and therefore greater bone formation during BMU activity, whereas pairing suggested relatively less bone formation per remodelling event.

Why does this matter?
The implications extend beyond statistics. Researchers use these ratios to investigate ageing, osteoporosis, menopause-related bone loss, activity patterns, biomechanics, and socioeconomic influences on skeletal health. If different calculation methods produce different ratio values, they may also lead to different biological interpretations. We found that pooling tends to place greater weight on larger osteons, which can skew the resulting ratio. By contrast, pairing treats each individual remodelling event equally and preserves information at the level of individual BMUs. This makes paired data more biologically informative and more flexible for future analyses that might incorporate additional variables such as osteocyte density or mineralisation patterns. 

Balancing efficiency and precision
There is, however, a practical trade-off. Pooling is generally faster and easier because it requires less data management and fewer calculations. This can be advantageous when dealing with large datasets or when only summary measurements are available. Pairing requires additional effort during data collection and analysis, but it provides greater analytical precision and richer biological information. 

Our take-home message
Our study demonstrates that pooling and pairing are not interchangeable approaches for calculating Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios. While pooling remains useful and efficient, pairing provides a more precise representation of individual bone remodelling events. We therefore encourage researchers to be explicit about which method they use and to consider how that choice may influence biological interpretations and comparisons between studies. Ultimately, methodological transparency is essential if we want bone histology to continue providing reliable insights into health, ageing, and skeletal adaptation in both modern and past populations.

Paper reference here and well done to our post-doc Karen Cooke for leading the study and Honours student Isabella Pearce for collecting part of the data!

Cooke, K. M., Pearce, I., R Claire, A., Louys, J., Mahoney, P., & Miszkiewicz, J. J. (2026). Evaluating Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios for reconstructing bone remodelling activity. Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism.

We are very happy to receive acceptance news for our recent mansucript titled "Evaluating Haversian canal-to-osteon ratios for reconstructing bone remodelling activity: balancing precision and efficiency in data collection" in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Metabolism.

In this paper, led by our postdoc Karen Cooke, we test whether simple ratios between Haversian canal size and secondary osteon size can reliably reconstruct bone remodelling activity, and whether these measurements can be streamlined without losing interpretive power. We evaluate how much biological signal is retained when using efficient, lower‑effort histological measurements versus more labour‑intensive ones.

We look forward to sharing our paper once it's published!