Mission of the Bone Density and Body Composition Research Core:

To advance interdisciplinary health sciences research and innovation by providing high quality bone density and body composition measures to investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Partners HealthCare and the broader, medical and research community.

Executive Summary:

The BWH Bone Density and Body Composition Research Core uses the latest technology to provide high quality, reproducible measures of bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition by dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Dr. Meryl S. LeBoff is the Director of the Bone Density and Body Composition Research Core and has decades of experience in assessing bone density and body composition. She is the Chief of the Calcium and Bone Section and Director of the Skeletal Health and Osteoporosis Center and Bone Density Unit in the Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension Division at BWH, which she founded in 1987. Since that time, it has become a multifaceted program encompassing research and clinical care. She has served on many task forces and advisory boards and committees including the 2013 Expert Panel for the International Society for Clinical Densitometry’s (ISCD) Position Statement on Bone Density and Body Composition Measures. She serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Additionally, she has extensive research and clinical experience in: new approaches to imaging bone density, structure, and body composition; osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases; fracture assessments; evaluation of mineral homeostasis; and bone turnover biomarkers. In a large multi-center study, Dr. LeBoff and her staff at BWH showed the best in vivo and in vitro reproducibility (i.e. precision) among the academic medical centers involved. She and the staff at the Bone Density and Body Composition Research Core have been performing clinical research scans for more than 25 years and are committed to maintaining the highest standards of quality control