Our understanding of how the skeleton is remodeled and repaired has been enormously expanded in the past decade.

Using advanced molecular technologies including transgenesis, gene knockout, and gene array, we are gaining a better understanding of both the precise pathways through which osteoblasts lay down new bone and how osteoclasts remove old bone. These studies have not only helped us understand the basic biological properties of the skeleton and how it responds to hormonal, cytokine, and mechanical stimulation, but also, in some instances, clarified the source of pathophysiology.

The eventual goal of such discoveries is to lay down a firm scientific foundation for the identification of novel cellular and molecular targets for future drug development. This volume presents the significant headway that scientists have made in this undertaking and the book is organized around four broad themes: skeletal development and repair, molecular endocrinology of bone, bone cell biology, and conservation of skeletal integrity. Also included are papers that focus on current and emerging therapies for osteoporosis.

"NOTE: Annals volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit" "www.blackwellpublishing.com/nyas."

"ACADEMY MEMBERS Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (""www.nyas.org"). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to the Annals online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http: //www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member.

These volumes differ from the current conventional texts on bone cell biology. Biology itself is advancing at breakneck speed and many presentations completely fail to present the field in a truly modern context. This text does not attempt to present detailed clinical descriptions. Rather, after discussion of basic concepts, there is a concentration on recently developed findings equally relevant to basic research and a modern understanding of metabolic bone disease. The book will afford productive new insights into the intimate inter-relation of experimental findings and clinical understanding. Modern medicine is founded in the laboratory and demands of its practitioners a broad scientific understanding: these volumes are written to exemplify this approach. This book is likely to become essential reading equally for laboratory and clinical scientists.

The volume features current basic, clinical, and translational research on aspects of skeletal morphogenesis and remodeling in health and disease. Papers survey vital new insights into the mechanisms of bone development and restructuring, including cellular and mechanical triggers, receptors and signaling pathways. Also covered are the effects of other physiological systems and disease states, such as immune system inflammation, diabetes, infection, and cancer on musculoskeletal health. Recent findings are shaping therapeutic directions that focus on both anti-resorptive and anabolic therapies. Basic scientists, clinical investigators, and clinicians with interests spanning endocrinology, physiology, cell biology, pathology, genetics, molecular biology, rheumatology, oncology, and other areas that relate to bone development and homeostasis will find this a valuable resource for the most recent developments in skeletal biology and medicine.This volume presents manuscripts stemming from the 4th New York Skeletal Biology and Medicine Conference, held at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City on April 27-30, 2011. The papers included in this volume include two of the topic areas presented at the conference; the other topic areas are included in "Skeletal Biology and Medicine I." NOTE: "Annals" volumes are available for sale as individual books or as a journal. For information on institutional journal subscriptions, please visit http: //ordering.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/subs.asp?ref=1749-6632&doi=10.1111/(ISSN)1749-6632.

ACADEMY MEMBERS: Please contact the New York Academy of Sciences directly to place your order (www.nyas.org). Members of the New York Academy of Science receive full-text access to "Annals" online and discounts on print volumes. Please visit http: //www.nyas.org/MemberCenter/Join.aspx for more information about becoming a member.