Professor Bjorn Reino Olsen
King Faisal Prize in Medicine 2019 Laureate
Topic: "Bone Biology and Osteoporosis "
The success of many projects can be traced back to the ability of students and postdoctoral fellows to not only listen to new ideas, but examine them in light of experimental evidence and argue about experimental action or disposal in the 'graveyard' of discarded ideas
Bjorn Olsen received his medical and doctoral degrees from the University of Oslo in 1967, where he became a faculty member at the Anatomical institute and conducted molecular studies on the structure of collagen. In 1971, he went to the United States to work with Professor Darwin Prockop, and one year later joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry, at Rutgers Medical School, now UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where he was promoted to the rank of professor in 1976. In 1985, Professor Olsen was appointed the Hersey professor of anatomy and cellular biology at Harvard Medical School, becoming later a Hersey professor of cell biology. Since 1996, he has also been a senior member of the staff at the Forsyth Institute and a professor of developmental biology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) since 2002. He was the Chairman at the Harvard-Forsyth Department of Oral Biology between 1996-2002, and the Dean for research at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine between 2005-2017. research 2005-2017.
His work contributed to mapping the gene for craniofacial disorder Cherubism, the identification of the mutation in the myeloid signaling regulator SH3BP2, the mapping of the gene responsible for excess bone formation in craniometaphyseal dysplasia, and the identification of mutations in pyrophosphate transporter ANK and its regulation of bone mass.
Professor Olsen’s work on the genetics of vascular syndromes has led to identification of mutations governing pyrophosphate transport (ANK) and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2. These findings have led to unraveling of complex developmental and disease mechanisms at the intersection between skeletal and vascular biology, as well as highlighting the role of vascular endothelial growth factor in the differentiation that mesenchymal stem cells to osteoblasts and bone marrow adipocytes
Professor Olsen has published over 400 papers. He is a member of the editorial boards of several journals, including the Journal of Cell Biology, Molecular Biology of the Cell, Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Bone and Development. He has been editor-in-chief of Matrix Biology, and founder and editor-in-chief of BioMed Central’s Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine. He held leadership positions in several professional organizations, including the International Society for Matrix Biology. Professor Olsen has received numerous honors and awards including Fell-Muir Award and Humboldt Research Award.\
This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.
