The ultimate goal of Dr. Narattaphol’s work is to answer the question of – how
to help people have strong and healthy bone? This question
should bring awareness to the future risk that comes with
aging population. Aging is accompanied by degenerative diseases,
especially metabolic bone diseases which are expensive to
treat
and eventually lead to morbidity and mortality. To achieve
this goal, Dr. Narattaphol and his colleagues use various
multidisciplinary approaches, e.g., organ transplantation,
electrophysiology,
radionuclide tracer, bone histomorphometry, dual-energy X-ray
absorptiometry, confocal fluorescent imaging, molecular cloning,
bioinformatics, biophysics and nanoscience, to elucidate
in depth the calcium-regulating
machinery. He has proposed a novel theory pertaining to the
transepithelial calcium transport in the intestine, as well
as the optimal calcium concentration for effective calcium
absorption. His findings can be directly applied to improve
forms of calcium-fortified tablets and calcium-enriched diet,
and to mitigate osteopenia or osteoporosis in patients with
chronic metabolic
acidosis or in lactating women.