After these very difficult years, we are finally envisaging a face to face congress of the ECTS, and the ECTS Academy is very excited to organize several events where people can meet again, especially for new and young investigators, but of course everyone is invited to join! The ECTS Academy activities will take place both during the Main Congress, on May 7th-10th 2022, as well as during the Pre-Congress activities on May 6th 2022.
During the Pre-Congress Day (May 6th), the ECTS Academy will organize two Open Forums (both from 16.30 to 18.30). The first event will be the “Open Forum on Animal Models: Mouse bone research at single cell resolution: from high-end microscopy to ‘Omics’”. Traditionally, this session, focusing on a broad range of topics related to animal models in musculoskeletal research, attracts an enthusiastic audience and also this year it promises to be a very interesting session. Christa Maes will give her very best advice on 3D imaging and quantitative image analysis at the single cell resolution, while Duncan Bassett will give an overview of how to approach single cell and single nuclear RNA-Seq for trancriptomic mapping of bone, and finally Steve Stegen will enlighten us on the metabolomics of bone cells. The second session will be the “Open Forum on Histomorphometry” during which an overview of the current topics in histomorphometric studies in the field of calcified tissues will be provided. Eva Wölfel will focus on bone cell activity in primary and secondary osteoporosis, Thomas Andersen and Christina Andreasen will describe the consequences of aging and osteoporosis on bone remodeling, Nathalie Bravenboer will give an overview on bone marrow adipocytes in rodents and humans, and Laura Brylka will finish with static and dynamic histomorphometry in rodents. Additionally, in both sessions, submitted abstracts will be selected for an oral presentation. We are confident that these Open Fora will stimulate vibrant discussion on basic and translational aspects of bone research.
Furthermore, during the Pre-Congress day (18.45 to 20.45) the Next Generation Synergy session will take place again, where we will explore with representatives from other young investigator societies in the musculoskeletal field how young investigators organize themselves and work together to promote their research and clinical activities. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, our exchange programs have been on hold, but to replace this we will host a panel discussion on how to face challenges in professional bone societies, of course related to the pandemic and our ‘online lives’ nowadays, but also more general challenges of how to balance clinical and basis aspects, how to keep members engaged, and how to connect with young investigators during all of this. Hopefully, hearing about each other’s societies will inspire new ideas and initiatives and will certainly lead to new future collaborations!
During the main Congress on May 8th (19:00 to 20:00), the Academy will host the New Investigator Mentoring session, where six highly esteemed mentors will share their experience and thoughts on diverse topics such as ‘How to get small grants’ by Alex Ireland, ‘The world of peer-review’ by Elizabeth Zimmerman, ‘How to deal with negative results’ by Marietta Herrmann, ‘How to plan animal experiments’ by Jan Tuckermann, ‘How to conduct studies with industry partners’ by Robert Stad representing Amgen, and ‘How to transition to independence’ by Martina Rauner. As always a very interactive, useful and fun event!
On May 9th (19:00 to 20:00), the New Investigator Seminar and Gathering event will take place. During this interactive session, the six highest ranking basic and clinical abstracts from new investigators will be selected, and the selected delegates will present their data during an oral seminar, followed by live questions from the audience.
The ECTS Academy is also organizing a charity event; more information on this will come, join us in supporting the dedicated charity!
We are looking forward to meeting you all during the conference and we hope we will be able to create an interesting program for everyone and especially the new investigators! So stay tuned also for all our other initiatives!