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.

Bo Abrahamsen is an endocrinologist at Holbæk Hospital in Denmark and primarily treats patients with osteoporosis, metabolic bone diseases and parathyroid disorders. He is also a professor of clinical database studies at the University of Southern Denmark. He attended Medical School in Odense, Denmark, the B.Sc. Hons Course in Experimental Pathology at St. Andrews, UK, and part of his PhD lab work at UMASS Medical Center, Worcester, MA. Main research interests include absolute fracture risk, secondary osteoporosis, fracture epidemiology and safety of anti-osteoporotic drugs and supplements. He served on both ASBMR Task Forces on Atypical Femur Fractures. Dr Abrahamsen is the clinical co-chair for the ECTS 2019 annual meeting SPC and Deputy Editor of JBMR plus. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research and Associate Editor of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

Geert Carmeliet is MD, trained in pediatrics (KU Leuven, Belgium) and obtained her PhD in Biomedical Sciences (KU Leuven). Since 1995, she switched to an academic career and is now Professor in Medicine and Chairman of the Division of Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology, KU Leuven. She is first, corresponding and/or senior author in a broad spectrum of basic and translational journals in the field of bone development, pathology and regeneration, but also in more general biomedical journals including Nature, Cell Metab, JCI, PNAS. She is involved in training and teaching medical students and PhD students. She is member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium, member of the FWO expert panel and was member of the Scientific Research Council, KU Leuven. She is an invited speaker at international conferences (Gordon, Keystone, ASBMR).

Christian Meier is associate professor of endocrinology at the University of Basel and serves as consultant at the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Clinical Nutrition at University Hospital Basel, Switzerland. Christian received his scientific and medical training (Swiss Board Certification Internal Medicine 1997 and Endocrinology & Diabetology 1999) in Switzerland and in Australia. From 2002-2004, he joined the Bone Biology Research Group at the ANZAC Research Institute in Sydney and was involved in various clinical projects assessing the clinical utility of bone turnover markers. His research interests include various aspects of bone and mineral metabolism, specifically pathophysiological aspects of male osteoporosis and diabetic bone disease.

Christian is past-president of the Swiss Society against osteoporosis (SVGO), serves as committee member of the Dachverband deutschsprachiger osteologischer Gesellschaften e.V. (DVO), is member of the Committee Scientific Advisors of the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF), and co-chairs the ECTS Clinical Practice Action Group.

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.

Dr Alex Ireland is a Reader in Musculoskeletal Physiology at the Musculoskeletal Science and Sports Medicine Research Centre, based at Manchester Metropolitan University.  Alex’s research focuses on work with human participants, examining the effects of mechanical loading on bones and joints across lifespan.  In particular his work has focused on the earliest stages of life, investigating the role of prenatal movements and postnatal motor development on skeletal health.  He also has expertise in neuromuscular health and function in healthy and clinical populations of different ages.  Having completed a postdoctoral project on the contribution of motor unit loss and remodelling to age-related muscular decline, he has since examined the influence of skeletal conditions such as osteogenesis imperfecta and hypophosphotemia on physical function.  Alex is co-Chair of the ECTS Academy, and a member of the Steering Committee of the International Conference on Children’s Bone Health.  He is also an Associate Editor of the ECTS journal Bone Reports, and an Editor of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

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.

Dr Jeroen Geurts is principal investigator in the Department of Rheumatology at the Lausanne University Hospital (Switzerland), with expertise in musculoskeletal pathology, bone biology and translational & clinical osteoarthritis research. Co-chair of the ECTS Academy, member of BMAS, SBMS and OARSI and associate editor for basic science at Osteoarthritis & Cartilage. Current research focuses on unraveling the role of subchondral bone marrow adipose tissue in regulating pathological bone formation in osteoarthritis.

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).