ECTS-Kyowa Kirin Maria Luisa Bianchi Award
Nominations period: nominations are closed.
In memory of Professor Maria Luisa Bianchi, who sadly passed away in 2020, ECTS would like to remember and honour Maria Luisa during its annual congress by introducing an annual Maria Luisa Bianchi Clinical Research Award on Rare Bone Diseases. This award is supported by Kyowa Kirin International.
The recipient of this award will give a lecture at the annual meeting and receive a grant of 10,000€ to be paid into the recipient’s institution or university account to contribute to specific research expenses.
About Maria Luisa Bianchi
Maria Luisa was an internationally recognised expert in the field of paediatric and rare bone diseases, who was actively involved in research, education and patient care. Her clinical research activities focused on paediatric metabolic bone diseases, endocrinology and steroid treatment side effects. She developed studies on cystic fibrosis, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, glycogen storage disease type 1, celiac disease and more. She was an active and regular contributor to the ECTS congress for many years, member of the ECTS Board of Directors and member of the ECTS Rare Disease Action Group.
Eligibility
This award is open to medical doctors who have made significant progress and contribution to the field of clinical rare bone disease research.
ECTS Board members are not eligible to this award during term of office in the ECTS Board.
Nomination Procedure
Nominations are now closed.
Nominees must be nominated and seconded by ECTS members, using the online form.
Review Procedure
All nominations are reviewed by an independent panel of reviewers. The final decision is based on the marks and comments from the reviewers and any conflicts of interest are identified and dealt with appropriately. The ECTS Grants and Awards Committee and ECTS Board will make the final decision based on scores and comments by the reviewers.
Presentation and Announcement of the Award
The award will be presented at the Welcome Remarks during the Annual Congress. A dedicated session will also be held during which the awardee will give a lecture. The award winner will also be announced through the ECTS communication channels.
Financial Support
This award programme is supported by Kyowa Kirin International in the form of an educational grant. The selection process will not be influenced in any way by its sponsor.
Winner of the 2023 Maria Luisa Bianchi Award
Congratulations to Martine Cohen-Solal, Professor, Inserm U1132 Bioscar, department of Rheumatology, hospital Lariboisiere, Paris, France, recipient of the 2023 Maria Luisa Bianchi Award. The award will be presented during ECTS 2023 Congress in Liverpool.
Martine Cohen-Solal has contributed to the physiopathology of bone fragility using clinical and basic approaches that are applied to osteoporosis and rare bone diseases. She focused her research in analysing the heritability and genetic background of idiopathic osteoporosis, identifying Lrp5 and other Wnt-related genes to bone remodelling and strength.
Martine Cohen-Solal is professor of cell biology at the Universite Paris-Cité and rheumatologist in Lariboisiere hospital in Paris. She is the director of the Inserm research unit “Bone and joints” in Paris, which focus on biology of bone and joint diseases. She is leading the Reference center of Rare Bone Diseases in Paris, in particular aiming to characterize new genes and clinical management of skeletal dysplasia. She has served the European Calcified Tissues Society as a director of Research committee and currently the coordinator of the Rare Disease Working Group.
Along with the research activity, she led the Master programme dedicated to skeletal diseases, offering complete training for research to scientists and clinicians. She supervised 12 PhD and 20 Master students in the field of bone and joints research.
Martine deserves the Maria Luisa Bianchi award not only because she has contributed to the knowledge of rare bone diseases, but also because she has been involved in ECTS for many years, working selflessly to make ECTS what it is today, a society of high scientific level.
Congratulations Martine for this well-deserved award!
