Board of Directors

Since over 30 years Peter Pietschmann made numerous major and innovative contributions to the field of bone and osteoporosis research. His areas of research include markers of bone turnover, the pathogenesis of secondary osteoporosis, osteoporosis in men, the regulation of bone resorption and the development and characterization of in vivo models for bone research. On the basis of his broad experimental and clinical research experience he was among the first to delineate interactions between bone and the immune system, a field now termed “osteoimmunology”. Within the area of osteoimmunology, in particular his work relating the pathogenesis of age related osteoporosis to inflammaging and his contributions to bone pathology of inflammatory diseases should be highlighted. Peter Pietschmann has published over 260 papers in peer reviewed journals, 33 book chapters and edited three books. According to Scopus his H-index is 47. He has trained over 50 bachelor, master and doctoral students.

Martine Cohen-Solal Professor of cell biology (university Paris Cité) and physician at the Rheumatology Department, Lariboisiere hospital since2008 Director of the Inserm research unit “Biology of bone and Cartilage BIOSCAR”, hospital Lariboisiere, Paris

Boards and directions – Board member of Inserm scientific specialized committee CSS6 from 2008 to 2012 – Member of the scientific committee of Inserm since 2022 – Board of the European Calcified Tissues Society from 2011 to 2017 – Board of the national Rare Diseases Network for Skeletal dysplasia (OSCAR) and director of the Research Axis. – Director of the Reference Centre for Rare Bone Diseases and Skeletal Dysplasia in Paris. – Member of the European Reference Network for rare bone diseases ERN Bond – Membre du conseil scientifique de l’école doctorale HOB Paris Cité – Editor manager of Bone journal

Teaching activities – Teaching and in charge of cell biology at university Paris Cité medical school – Teaching and coordinator of the master degree program at Paris-Diderot medical school – Coordinator of the Master program “Biology of the skeleton” – Co-organization of the European Erasmus-Plus Blended Mobility program – Organization of the PhD training Course of ECTS in 2016. – Board and teaching of PhD Summer school Marie-Curie program (european project Biomedaqu 2019 – 2023). Organization of symposia, conferences – Coordination of the translational research working group of the Oscar Rare Diseases Network.

Martina Rauner studied biotechnology at the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna, Austria from 2002-2006. Aftercompleting her doctorate at the Department of Pathophysiology at the Medical University of Vienna in 2008, she received theECTS/AMGEN bone research fellowship and joined the group of Professor Lorenz Hofbauer in Dresden, Germany to studymechanisms of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis. In 2011, Martina became Group leader for Osteoimmunology andexpanded her research area to chronic inflammatory diseases and Wnt signaling. Due to her comprehensive knowledge onbone biology, its interactions with other organ systems, and her leadership skills, she was promoted to the Scientific Directorof the Bone lab in 2015 and became Professor for Molecular Bone Biology in 2018. Currently, her group is particularlyinterested in the interactions of bone with hematopoiesis and hormones, and studies the role of Wnt and BMP signaling.
Martina has published over 150 publications in the field of bone biology and has received several awards for her work.Moreover, she was on the board of the ECTS from 2012-2018, has promoted the needs of New Investigators in that society,and is a founding member of the ECTS Academy, a group of outstanding young scientists in the musculoskeletal field.Moreover, she is an ASBMR Ambassador for Germany.

Polyzois Makras is consultant endocrinologist, Director of the Endocrinology Department, the Department of Medical Research, and of the National expert center for Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) and Erdheim Chester Disease (ECD) of251 Hellenic Air Force &VA General Hospital of Athens, Greece. He received his MD from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 1994, and he was trained in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology in Athens. He received his PhD Degree from the University of Thrace, Greece, and he served as a clinical fellow at the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases of the Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands between 2006-2007.

During the last eighteen years he has been engaged in research in disorders of calcium and bone metabolism as well as inrare diseases (mainly LCH and other non-langerhans histiocytoses). He co-founded the LCH adult clinic in 2005 which became the National expert center for LCH and ECD in 2019 and joined the ERN – EuroBloodNet in 2022.

He is a founding member of the European Consortium for Histiocytosis (ECHO) and founder and head of the Adult ECHO working group.

He is former President of the Hellenic Society for the Study of Bone Metabolism, and member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) since 2020. He established the first fracture liaison service (FLS)in Greece, and he is the leading author of all diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines for osteoporosis and parathyroid disorders in the same country during the last 13 years.

Claudine Blin is research director and head of the team “Osteoimmunology, Niches and Inflammation” at the Laboratory of Molecular Physiomedicine, Nice, France. She obtained her PhD from the University Paris Diderot in 1995. In 2003, she established her independent research group on osteoimmunology in Nice. Her team projects are at the interface between osteology, immunology and stem cell biology, mostly in the context of chronic inflammatory diseases. She has a special interest in the heterogeneity and innate immune function of osteoclasts, their interaction with immune cells, and their contribution in inflammatory bone destruction. Claudine Blin has been secretary and is president elect of the French Society of Mineral Tissue Biology (SFBTM) and co-chairs the ECTS PhD training action group. She is a member of the scientific board of the French Arthritis Fondation and a member of the scientific and educational committee of the Life University School of Research, University Cote d’Azur.

Björn Busse is Full Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medical Technology at the Department of Osteology and Biomechanics, University Medical Center Hamburg, Germany. He is director of a Heisenberg Research Group and the Forum Medical Technology Health in Hamburg (FMTHH), Germany. Björn has a strong interest in skeletal imaging, biomechanics and bone quality analyses. He has graduated in bioengineering and has finished his Ph.D. work with honors at the Free and Humboldt University Berlin / Charité, University Medicine Berlin, where he has focused on bone imaging and bone mineralization. In particular, he has focused on scanning/backscattered electron microscopy, microanalysis, materials testing and bone histomorphometry. His work provides a contribution to our understanding of the fracture mechanisms of bone, specifically by focussing on aspects of bone quality, such as osseous changes with skeletal aging, osteoporosis, osteoporosis treatment strategies, osteomalacia, osteogenesis imperfecta, Paget’s disease of bone, etc. from both a medical and bioengineering perspective.
Björn gained further academic teaching and research experience during his post-doc research fellowship at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the University of California, Berkeley. Björn has published more than 100 papers in highly visible journals and was awarded with several research prizes including the ‘John Haddad Young Investigator Award’ of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research and the ‘von Recklinghausen-Prize’ of the German Society of Endocrinology.

Michaela Tencerova is a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Physiology (IPHYS) of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. Through Postdoctoral trainings (UMASS Medical School, USA and SDU, Odense, Denmark) she gained knowledge in the topics of immunometabolism, stem cell biology and bone marrow adiposity in obesity and diabetes. Her current research focuses on the role of bone marrow adiposity in the regulation of bone homeostasis and whole-body metabolism. She is a co-chair of the ECTS Academy, and a member of scientific board of the Bone Marrow Adiposity Society (BMAS), ECTS Basic science committee, ASBMR Women in Bone and Mineral Research Committee.

Willem Lems is Professor of Rheumatology at Amsterdam UMC, where he is also currently the vice-chair and the Educational Officer of the Department of Rheumatology. Professor Lems completed his medical education in 1983 and qualified as Rheumatologist in 1993. Since then, his research into Metabolic Changes in Patients with Rheumatic Diseases has led to the publication of over 400 articles. Apart from Bone Diseases, his current research focusses on the early treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis as well as targeting phenotypes in hip- and knee osteoarthritis. He is the founding member of the Oslo-Truro-Amsterdam collaborative study, is on the editorial board of several journals, including Osteoporosis International, and served as member of the Scientific Committee for EULAR, IOF and ECTS and most recently as Clinical Co-Chair for ECTS 2021. He is a member of the ECTS corporate engagement group and, together with Astrid Bakker, organised the 2018 ECTS PhD training course.

Full Professor of Internal Medicine, “Sapienza” University of Rome. Medical Degree and Specialization in Internal Medicine at “Sapienza” University of Rome; Visiting Doctorat the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA; Past president of the ltalian Society of Osteoporosis, Mineral Metabolism and Skeletal Diseases (SIOMMMS) (2009-2011 ); Member of the Professional Practice Committee of the ASBMR (2009-2011 ); Member of the Executive Committee of the ltalian Society of Internal Medicine (2014-2018); Associate Editor of the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation; Member of Editorial Board of Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, Calcified Tissue International, Osteoporosis International and Bone Research; Author or co-author of more than 325 articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters, H-index: 56 (Google Scholar); Reviewer for more than 50 Journals; Head/Chief physician of inpatients and outpatients services at the Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Disciplines, University Hospital “Policlinico Umberto I”, Rome. Principal investigator of international trials especially related to experimental new drugs in the field of osteoporosis.

Prof. Dr. Heide Siggelkow is associate professor for Endocrinology at the Clinic of Gastroenterology, Gastrointestinal Oncology and Endocrinology, Head of the Working Group of Molecular Endocrinology and Osteology at the University Medical Center, Göttingen and Medical Director of the MVZ Endokrinologikum. She works in an outpatient clinic for endocrine or metabolic bone diseases including osteoporosis, hypoparathyroidism, hyperparathyroidism and rare bone diseases. Between 2011 and 2015, she was head of the Association of German Language Societies in the special Field of Osteology (DVO). In this position, she initiated and supported the development of the Osteologic Research Centers DVO. She has been president of the German Society of Osteology (DGO) from 2017–2019, since then she serves as vice-president. In 2017, the Intensive Course for Clinical Endocrinology of the German Society of Endocrinology (DGE) took place in Göttingen under her leadership, and in 2019 she hosted the yearly congress of the society DGE in Göttingen. Since 2018, she has been spokesperson of the German network of rare bone diseases, “Netzwerk für seltene Osteopathien NetsOs”. 2017-2020 she was member of the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS) Website and Social Media Action Group, since 2021 she joined the ECTS Action group of Rare Bone Diseases. Since 2020 she is member of the ESE Education committee and representative in the PARAT programme of the European Society of Endocrinology (ECE). Her basic scientific work focuses on molecular and metabolic mechanisms important for the interplay between fat and bone in primary and secondary forms of osteoporosis, with a special focus on cortisol and bone. Another main topic was the investigation of mechanisms of osteoporosis in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. Her clinical research is now concentrated on secondary forms of osteoporosis and on hypoparathyroidism with a special focus on quality of life. invited speaker at international conferences (Gordon, ASBMR, Keystone).

I am a clinical physician in my last half year of specialization to be an endocrinologist at Department of Medicine, Regional Hospital Horsens and Department of Endocrinology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. My research primarily focuses on studying the mechanisms and fracture prediction in diabetic bone disease, optimizing osteoporosis treatment and preventing the progression from osteopenia to osteoporosis. I became a member of the ECTS Academy in 2023, where I am actively involved in several initiatives, including the organization and development of teaching materials on calcium metabolism, reviewing abstracts for ECTS, and serving as co-chair for the Poster Forum (clinical).