<![CDATA[SOCIAL AND TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF BONE LOSS - NEWS]]>Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:03:09 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Upcoming Conferences]]>Fri, 10 Apr 2026 04:18:58 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/april-09th-2026The team will be presenting multiple papers at in-person and online conferences all over the globe in the next few months.

First up is the World Congress on Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases in Prague (16-19th of April). Our paper is titled "Lower Bone Remodelling and Earlier Mortality in Females: A Historical Example" and was completed in collaboration with Dr Clare McFadden (UQ) and Patrick Mahoney (Uni Kent).

In June, Karen will be presenting a small side project she has been working on with Dr Stacey Ward (ANU) (see our earlier post "On the Road") at the online BeFrail webinar series. The presentation is entitled " Quantification of Periostitis through Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy and Roughness Analysis", with dates and registration links to be released soon.

And finally, we have just been accepted to present at the Congress of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists in Melbourne over the 13-16th of August. The paper "Systemic Bone Remodelling Assessment and Cancer (Differential) Diagnosis in Ancient Human Remains" will be presented as a part of the Anatomy for Everyone​ session.
]]><![CDATA[new paper in journal of anatomy]]>Mon, 30 Mar 2026 03:55:33 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/new-paper-in-journal-of-anatomyWe’re excited to share our new study published in the Journal of Anatomy, where we explored how microscopic structures of human bone scale with femoral cross-sectional size. Using midshaft femur microradiographs from 73 individuals in the Melbourne Femur Research Collection, we set out to test whether cortical thickness and biomechanical properties influence the size and density of secondary osteons produced during remodelling.

In our analysis, we measured cortical‑to‑total area (CA/TA), femoral rigidity (Imax/Imin), osteon area, the ratio of Haversian canal to osteon area (H.Ar/On.Ar), and osteon population density across the anterior, posterior, medial and lateral quadrants. We found strong negative correlations between CA/TA and H.Ar/On.Ar in the full sample, in males, and in a subgroup of sedentary but well‑nourished individuals. In these groups, thicker cortices were associated with less porous osteons, meaning smaller Haversian canals relative to surrounding lamellar bone. Notably, this pattern did not appear in females or in other age and lifestyle categories.

Our findings highlight that bone microstructure does not vary independently of bone size. We argue that allometric effects, particularly cortical thickness, should be incorporated into future assessments of bone remodelling and lifestyle reconstruction to avoid confounding histological interpretations.

Link to our paper: ​https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joa.70143 
]]><![CDATA[media coverage of recent paper]]>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 22:34:50 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/march-23rd-2026A paper Justyna co-authord, led by Chloe Boucher, recently published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, received international attention, with major outlets highlighting its significance for understanding disease, disability, and caregiving in early Philippine societies. 

Medium profiled the study as a window into disease and disability during the Metal Period, emphasising how the skeletal evidence reveals the lived experience of impairment in early Philippine communities. 

PhilStar Global News focused on the discovery as rare evidence of prehistoric caregiving, noting that the individual’s long-term survival with severe impairment suggests strong community support and social care practices 2,000 years ago. 

Archaeology Magazine highlighted the identification of scurvy in the remains, underscoring the study’s contribution to understanding micronutrient deficiency, health stress, and the interplay between diet and disability in ancient Luzon.

Link to paper:
Boucher C, Hussin D, Miszkiewicz JJ, Bolunia MJLA, De Leon AS, Peñalosa AL, Pagulayan PS, Soranio V, Oxenam M, Vlok M. 2026. Nutritional deficiency contributing to physical impairment of an individual in the Metal Period Philippines (~2000-1800BP). International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 

Links to the news sites:
What a 2,000-Year-Old Philippine Skeleton Reveals About Disease and Disability During the Metal Period Medium
What prehistoric bones bare about early Filipino caregiving PhilStar Global News
Scurvy detected on 2,000-year-old remains from the Philippines. Archaeology Magazine

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]]><![CDATA[research visit in september]]>Mon, 23 Mar 2026 22:28:07 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/research-visit-in-septemberWe are delighted that Mr Antony Joseph Cevallos Alava, PhD Candidate at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), has been awarded an ICON SGroup Intercontinental Academic Exchange Programme grant. As part of this award, Antony will join our lab for a short-term research stay in September. He will collaborate with Justyna on a project investigating bone loss in archaeological populations, drawing on our microscopy facilities. Antony will also contribute to our research training culture by delivering a bioarchaeological methods workshop - more soon!

Well done Antony!]]><![CDATA[Welcome phoebe!]]>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 23:02:58 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/welcome-phoebe
We are very excited to welcome Phoebe Meyrick into our research team who is joining us as a PhD student on a UQ funded scholarship. Phoebe is joining us from the University of Otago where she just completed her masters thesis titled "Investigating Medical Intervention, Healthcare and Social Wellbeing in Colonial Otago Through Paleopathological Analysis of the W.D. Trotter Skeletal Pathology Collection". Prior to her masters, she completed a BA with Honours in Anthropology also at the University of Otago, working on a thesis titled "Paleopathological Analysis of a Commingled Assemblage from Eriama (ACV), Papua New Guinea". She also holds a BSc in Anthropological Science from the University of Auckland.

Phoebe's PhD will investigate bone health changes with social factors in medieval and other historical populations using microscopic methods. 

In December 2025, Phoebe was also elected the Australian studnet representative for the Australasian Society for Human Biology and will serve on the committee for 3 years.

Congratulations to Phoebe both for securing the UQ PhD scholarship and her success in joining the ASHB executive team!
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]]><![CDATA[Australasian Society for Human Biology 2025 Conference]]>Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:00:00 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/australasian-society-for-human-biology-2025-conferenceIt's that time of year again, earlier this month we attended the annual conference for the Australasian Society for Human Biology and this year we were hosted by the wonderful University of Auckland and their organising committee. As always, ASHB was a captivating, energising, and friendly conference, with many ideas shared, projects planned, and much coffee consumed. 
Both Justyna and Karen presented projects we have been working on this year. Justyna presented some amazing micro-CT work on hominin remains which has never been undertaken before (keep an eye on forthcoming publications), while Karen presented a poster on technical work which examines how we collect histomorphometric data. 
Karen was also elected onto the ASHB executive as Social Media Representative, joining Justyna who is currently Vice President of the society. Congratulations Karen!
]]><![CDATA[On the Road (and Further)]]>Tue, 11 Nov 2025 02:39:40 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/on-the-road-and-furtherOver November, members of the Bone-Loss team have hit the road and the sky, travelling to collect data and samples for our research.

Karen is currently visiting the Australian National University to collect data for a collaborative research project with Dr Stacey Ward, developing a new method for the quantitative measure of surface changes to bone. 
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In more distant journeys, Justyna is visiting the hard tissue histology lab at the University of Kent in the UK, collecting medieval samples for our project. This part of our project is in collaboration with Dr Patrick Mahoney, and will collect biochemical data at the histological level. Here she is with an image of Homo naledi enamel histology!
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]]><![CDATA[congratulations bella pearce]]>Tue, 07 Oct 2025 01:34:46 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/congratulations-bella-pearceHuge congratulations to our Honours student Bella Pearce, who submitted her Honours thesis today. Her thesis was titled "Age and Socioeconomic Status Effects on Medieval Female Cortical Bone Remodelling" and investigated femur intra-cortical bone remodelling variation with age and social status in a sample of medieval females, finding limited differences between low and high SES groups, but some variation in bone remodelling with age. Bella was an interdisciplinary student based at the School of Biomedical Sciences and working on her samples in the School of Social Science. 

Congratulations Bella and fingers crossed for positive examination reports!]]><![CDATA[Upcoming conference presentation and workshop]]>Sat, 23 Aug 2025 04:41:41 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/upcoming-conference-presentation-and-workshopJustyna will be presenting some pilot data from our broader project at the upcoming National Conference of the Polish Society in Poznan, Poland in September 2025. Her talk, co-authored with collaborator Rita Hardiman, reports on negative allometry of macroscopic and microscopic bone growth measures within the human femur using samples from the Melbourne Femur Research Collection. Justyna and PhD student from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan will also deliver a 3-hr workshop introducting participants to bone and tooth histology. 

More here]]><![CDATA[phd scholarship available]]>Thu, 08 May 2025 12:08:38 GMThttps://www.bone-loss.com/news/phd-scholarship-availableJOIN US TO DO YOUR PHD!

We have a fully funded PhD scholarship available for a domestic (Australia/NZ) student. The tentative title of the project is "Social inequality and bone health in ancient human populations". In this project you will work with existing bone mineral density and histology data from archaeological human populations. You will draw on modern human datasets to undertake temporal and spatial comparisons with ancient populations. You will apply a social determinants of health approach to these data and aim to create a model of human health resilience and vulnerability in an archaeological framework. 

Apply here by September 2025!]]>