Jean D. Sibonga, Ph.D.
Research Scientist
jsibonga@ems.jsc.nasa.gov

Jean Sibonga received her B.S. in Chemistry and English (1980) from University of Puget Sound, a liberal arts college in Tacoma, Washington. She joined the Mineral Metabolism Laboratory at the J.L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Hospital in Loma Linda, California where she obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from Loma Linda University (1988). During this period of graduate study, Dr. Sibonga was in the NASA Graduate Student Research Program where she evaluated the effects of simulated weightlessness on circulating levels of insulin-like growth factors in rats. Following her graduate work, Dr. Sibonga had a brief tenure as a contractor at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA where she supported activities of the Space Life Sciences Payloads Office. Dr. Sibonga developed her expertise in in-situ tissue analyses and bone histomorphometry during postdoctoral fellowships at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and the Mayo Clinic Orthopedic Research (Rochester, MN).

During her years at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Sibonga has reported the skeletal effects of estrogen receptor ligands, bone anabolics, and tumor suppressors in rat models for postmenopausal, age-related and alcohol induced osteoporosis. Since 1999 she has served as Assistant Professor of Orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic. In this role, she managed the Bone Histomorphometry Laboratory which prepares and quantifies iliac crest biopsies for the diagnosis of metabolic bone disease as well as supports research in skeletal tissues. Dr. Sibonga joined the DSLS at USRA in February 2005 where she serves as scientific lead for the Bone Mineral Laboratory at NASA JSC.