Doctoral Dissertation Research: The skeletal biology of porous cranial lesions

骨骼遗骸是关于人类健康时间趋势的重要信息来源。多孔性颅骨病变（PCLs）被解释为营养缺乏和慢性感染的指标，是人类骨骼遗骸中最常见的病理学发现之一。这个博士论文项目使用以前主要在考古背景下应用的方法来调查PCL的原因和与他们生活在一起的个人的健康状况。具体来说，研究人员将使用考古参考样本来开发计算机断层扫描（CT）标准，以识别活体个体中的PCL。然后，他们将把个人健康的测量与现有CT扫描的PCL结果联系起来。为PCL分析开发的协议和工具将在网上免费提供。该项目将加强未来研究合作的机构能力，并支持研究生和本科生的STEM学生培训。由于PCL是在儿童时期形成的，因此本提案中开发的方法将对整个生命周期的公共卫生产生影响。考古学样本中的PCLs被解释为压力和弹性的证据。该项目试图通过利用从活体人群中提取的现有数据来测试眼眶（眶筛）和颅穹窿（骨质疏松性骨质增生）中的PCL与已知健康状况的相关性，从而解决这种模糊性。首先，研究人员将制定一项协议，将考古学方法扩展到确定PCLs在活体人群中的患病率。具体而言，研究者将采用CT扫描的视觉评估和机器学习，使用考古颅骨的参考样本（n = 600）可靠地识别颅骨CT扫描上PCL的存在和程度。一旦开发完成，研究人员将应用该方案来识别1，310名已知健康状况的成年人的现有头颅CT上的PCL。这将把PCL的儿童发育与晚年健康的测量联系起来，包括生物标志物、医学诊断和自我报告的健康状况。最后，本项目测试的共同解释的PCLs作为儿童贫血的指标。使用来自同一人群中的儿童的干血斑样本的生物标记物（n = 480），研究人员将确定个别贫血病例的根本原因，并测试它们与活动性骨重建生物标志物的关系。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

Skeletal remains are important sources of information on temporal trends in human health. Porous cranial lesions (PCLs) are interpreted as indicators of nutrient deficiencies and chronic infections and are among the most common pathological findings in human skeletal remains. This doctoral dissertation project uses methods previously applied primarily in archaeological contexts to investigating the causes of PCLs and the health of individuals who live with them. Specifically, the researchers will use an archaeological reference sample to develop computed tomography (CT) criteria for identifying PCLs in living individuals. They will then link measures of individual health to PCL findings from existing CT scans of a living population. Protocols and tools developed for PCL analysis will be made freely available online. The project will strengthen institutional capacity for future research collaborations and support STEM student training at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Because PCLs are developed during childhood, the methods developed in this proposal will have implications for public health across the lifespan. PCLs in archaeological samples have been interpreted as evidence of both stress and resilience. This project attempts to resolve this ambiguity by leveraging existing data drawn from a living population to test the association of PCLs in the orbits (cribra orbitalia) and the cranial vault (porotic hyperostosis) with known health profiles. First, the researchers will develop a protocol to extend archaeological methods to determining the prevalence of PCLs in a living population. Specifically, investigators will employ both visual assessments of CT scans and machine learning to reliably identify the presence and extent of PCLs on cranial CT scans using a reference sample of archaeological crania (n = 600). Once developed, investigators will apply the protocol to identify PCLs on existing cranial CTs of 1,310 living adults with known health profiles. This will link childhood development of PCLs to measures of later life health, including biological markers, medical diagnoses, and self-reported wellness. Finally, this project tests the common interpretation of PCLs as indicators of childhood anemia. Using biological markers from dried blood spot samples from children in the same population of living individuals (n = 480), investigators will identify the underlying causes of individual anemia cases and test their association with a biological marker of active bone remodeling.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.