Osteosarcopenia, the concurrent presence of low bone mass (osteopenia and osteoporosis) and loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia), is an emerging musculoskeletal disorder that primarily affects the elderly population. It can lead to increased risk of falls, fractures and mortality. Yet, effective treatment that restores both bone and muscle integrity is currently not available, with nutritional approaches being used for patient management.

Project STRONG, led by Professor Melissa Formosa from the Department of Applied Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Biobanking, will use zebrafish as a model to screen a library of natural and semi-synthetic products to identify potential therapeutics that can concurrently improve bone and muscle function, targeting the existing treatment gap in osteosarcopenia. Project STRONG aims to use the methodologies developed in Project ZeEBRA, a FUSION R&I Technology Development Programme (R&I-2019-018T) focused on identifying drug targets for osteoporosis, and expand them to cover musculoskeletal disorders. A standardised protocol developed by the team for drug screening and toxicity testing in zebrafish larvae has recently been published in the Journal of Visualised Experiments (JoVE). More information can be found at DOI: 10.3791/67759

Project STRONG is an 18-month FUSION R&I Technology Development Programme LITE (TDPLite) 2024 funded by Xjenza Malta. The project is a collaborative effort between researchers from the University of Malta (Dr Sherif Suleiman, Ms Margherita Muscat, Ms Amy Marie Vella and Mr Matthew Camilleri), University of Szeged, Hungary (Professor Attila Hunyadi) and Bar-Ilan University, Israel (Professor David Karasik).

For further information about Project STRONG, kindly contact Prof. Formosa.

Project STRONG (R&I-2024-007L) is financed by Xjenza Malta, for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the FUSION: R&I Technology Development Programme.