Teresita Bellido, Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology in the UAMS College of Medicine. She has joint appointments in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and in the Department of Orthopaedics, College of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). Dr. Bellido is also non-clinician Research Career Investigator, at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System – John L. McClellan Memorial Hospital, in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is a highly respected scientist, internationally known leader in bone research, highly committed also to mentorship and faculty development.

Dr. Bellido holds multiple major grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Veterans Administration. She serves on the Skeletal Biology Development and Disease Study Section for the NIH, and is the past president of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), the premier international society of the field. Her research focuses on signal transduction in bone and muscle, with particular emphasis on osteocyte biology in health and disease and the mechanisms of hormonal action in the musculoskeletal system.

For her scientific and mentoring efforts, Bellido was awarded the IU Women Faculty Leadership Award and the Outstanding Postdoc Mentor Award in 2015, the ASBMR 2015 Paula Stern Achievement Award, which recognizes a woman in the bone research field who has made significant scientific achievements and who has promoted the professional development and career advancement of women, and the 2018 ASBMR Gideon A. Rodan Excellence in Mentorship Award in recognition for outstanding support by a senior scientist who has helped promote the independent careers of young investigators in bone and mineral metabolism. In 2022, Dr. Bellido was awarded the ASBMR Stephen M. Krane award, given in recognition of outstanding achievements in basic, translational, or clinical research in inflammation and/or skeletal matrix biology.

Research Focus:
My research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of hormones on bone and skeletal muscle and the effects of cancer on the musculoskeletal system.

The Bellido laboratory investigates the mechanisms of signal transduction among and within bone cells, with particular emphasis on the biology of osteocytes, and in cells of skeletal muscle. The laboratory employs in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo models to study how hormones and mechanical force act on bone and muscle cells and affect their function.

Current Projects:
Research projects in the Bellido lab center on understanding physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms that govern the function of the musculoskeletal system in health and disease, and developing genetic and pharmacological approaches to promote musculoskeletal health. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of osteocytes, the most abundant cells of bone, in driving the bone remodeling process in response to mechanical and hormonal cues, as well as in the role of these cells in cancer in bone and in multiple myeloma musculoskeletal disease. The laboratory receives funding from the National Institutes of health (NIH), the Veteran Administration (VA), and the biopharmaceutical industry.

• Mechanism of action of glucocorticoids in the musculoskeletal system
• PTH, osteocytes, and diabetes-induced bone disease
• Role of Osteocytes in cancer in bone in multiple myeloma
• Nutrition, bone, and the microbiome

Active Funding
R01CA209882 – Contribution of Osteocytes to the Musculoskeletal Effects of Multiple Myeloma.
Role: Principal Investigator with J Delgado-Calle (Contact PI)
7/1/2023-6/31/2028

R56 – PPARγ regulates osteocyte bioenergetics and function during aging.
Role: PI of subcontract UAMS- University of Toledo; PI: B Lecka-Czernik
9/30/2021-3/31/2026