Ono recognized with ASBMR 2024 Fuller Albright Award

Associate Professor Noriaki Ono, DDS, PhD, of UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry has received the Fuller Albright Award from The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.

The Fuller Albright Award recognizes admirable scientific accomplishment in the field of bone and mineral research.

Ono was presented the award on Sept. 29 at the 2024 ASBMR Annual Meeting in Toronto. The award includes a $2,000 honorarium.

“I’m incredibly honored to receive this prestigious Fuller Albright Award,” said Ono. “This award means so much for someone who spent the most exciting time of my career at the Endocrine Unit of the Massachusetts General Hospital. The Endocrine Unit was established in the 1930s by the legendary endocrinologist Dr. Fuller Albright, whom this award was named after.

“ASBMR has always been the home of my science and career, and I am almost the same age as ASBMR. I sincerely appreciate the unwavering support I received from the community. I’m thrilled to continue contributing to the ASBMR mission from my unique perspectives in the years to come.”

Originally from Tokyo, Ono joined the School of Dentistry’s Department of Diagnostic and Biomedical Sciences in July 2021. His research, which has been supported by the NIH since 2012, focuses on the fundamental biology of skeletal stem cells, with a further scope on understanding pathophysiology of dental, craniofacial, and skeletal deformities and diseases that affect millions of children and adults. Ono’s laboratory studies the function of skeletal stem cells in development, diseases, and regeneration of bone and cartilage.

Ono expressed his gratitude for his nominators, Hank Kronenberg, MD; Pam Robey, PhD; and Matt Greenblatt, MD, PhD, who he says tremendously influenced his research as a mentor and a colleague.

He also noted the impact of his mentors, Masaki Noda, MD, PhD, and Kronenberg, who shaped his career trajectory towards bone science, and his spousal investigator, Wanida Ono, DDS, DMSc, PhD, for the research program they have collectively built.

He said the recognition would have never been possible without the dedicated work of the many highly talented postdoctoral fellows he has had the great honor to work with.

Ono, who comes from a family with a lineage of dentists and orthodontists, holds doctorates in dental surgery and philosophy, as well as an orthodontic certificate, from Tokyo Medical and Dental University. He also completed a research fellowship in the Endocrine Unit of Massachusetts General Hospital. He was an associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry prior to joining UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry.

Fuller Albright, MD, was a renowned investigator and teacher whose achievements include significant contributions to the study of the renal effects of parathyroid hormone, estrogen use in osteoporosis, Vitamin D resistant rickets, and the establishment of the Endocrine Unit of the Massachusetts General Hospital.

The ASBMR is a professional, scientific, and medical society established to bring together clinical and experimental scientists who are involved in the study of bone and mineral metabolism. Comprised of basic research scientists, clinical investigators in bone and mineral metabolism and related fields, along with physicians and other health care practitioners, ASBMR members have interests in biomechanics, cell biology, molecular biology, dentistry, developmental biology, endocrinology, epidemiology, internal medicine, metabolism, molecular genetics, nephrology, obstetrics-gynecology, orthopaedics, pathology, pharmacology, physiology, rheumatology, and other research/clinical areas.