We mourn the loss of Jean-Pierre David, an esteemed colleague and expert in the field. He was an active member of the Grants & Awards Committee and first co-chair of the Communications Action Group – Read full announcement
Education and Events:
ECTS 2020 Digital Congress On Demand: while the ECTS@Home weekly series is going on until 8 December 2020, registered delegates can access Live Prime Time Virtual Platform and benefit of session recordings, eposters, exhibition and network with online delegates.
Digital Training Course on Diagnostic Tests for Osteoporosis – Clinical Use of Bone Turnover Markers: 17 November 2020 organised in collaboration with the Mellanby Center for Bone Research. Check Programme and Register now at a very special rate (free access for ECTS 2020 Delegates)
ECTS Webinar: Tips and Tricks for histomorphometry, 12 November 2020 9am CET by Nathalie Sims – Register here
The coupling of bone remodeling to energy metabolism, webinar organised by the ECTS Academy, 26 November 2020 4pm CET by Megan Weivoda – More information and registration
Webinar on Osteocytes with Teresita Bellido, 10 December 2020 4pm CET –Register here
ECTS Named Awards: bestowed in recognition of our colleagues and friends who have contributed so much to the field of bone and mineral metabolism – Submit your nominations until 30 November
Other Announcements and Events
Herbert Fleisch Workshop 2021 postponed to 2022 but series of virtual workshops will be organised. Registrations will be offered to ECTS members – Register your interest to participate
ICCBH Virtual Forum: Bone Fragility Disorders in Children: Online event from 18-20 November 2020. Registration open – More information
New webinar serieson recent developments in the field ofectopic calcification, from The EuroSoftCalcNet COST Action:
December 15, 2020, 4:00 pm CET, Skin changes in pseudoxanthoma elasticum: then and now by Ludovic Martin
January 19, 2021, 4:00 pm CET, Generalized Arterial Calcification of Infancy by Frank Rutsch,
February 16, 2021, 4:00 pm CET, Vascular Calcification: A Window into Mechanisms and Treatments for Age-related Cardiovascular Disease by Cathy Shanahan – Join the webinar
Wind Reel and Print! The ECTS 2020 Live Prime Time has been held, but the ECTS 2020 congress continues with the ECTS@Home series. ByBo Abrahamsen and Anna Teti
The ECTS 2020 congress this year was challenged by the SARS-COV2 virus that has changed our lifestyle and approach to science. Nevertheless, the Live Prime Time has been successfully presented to our delegates, arousing great interest, and promoting virtual but effective networking. Thank you for your support of the ECTS and the congress. All sessions were well attended, and the discussion was even more lively than usual. We were delighted to see so many questions asked by young investigators, who participated actively in all the events. Thanks to the ECTS Academy, new scientists were welcomed in our community, and we wish them success and productivity. The opportunity to network and reconnect with colleagues is an essential part of the ECTS congress.
ECTS webinar series in 2020 – boosted by the Covid-19 pandemic? By Bram van der Eerden on behalf of the E-learning action group
Although 2020 has not yet ended, what an unprecedented year this has been. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting many aspects of our scientific lives, including our annual conference, there is one feature of ECTS that has benefited from the pandemic: the ECTS webinar series on Bone, Muscle & Beyond
Wrapping up the first 3-year term for the current action group members, 2020 has been particularly successful for us and for the ECTS.
Introducing SIOMMMS – Societa’ Italiana dell’Osteoporosi, del Metabolismo Minerale e delle Malattie dello Scheletro or the Italian Society for Osteoporosis, Mineral Metabolism and Bone Diseases. By Cristiana Cipriani and Maurizio Rossini
The Italian Society for Osteoporosis, Mineral Metabolism and Bone Diseases was funded in 2000 from the union of the Italian Society of Mineral Metabolism (funded in 1979) and the Italian Society of Osteoporosis. With currently more than 500 members, SIOMMMS represents the most important scientific society for the study of osteoporosis and metabolic bone diseases in Italy.
Several specialties are involved in the society, as testified by the multidisciplinary of its members: rheumatology, internal medicine, endocrinology, nephrology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, radiology, orthopedics, basic science, biotechnology, biology. Application for membership may be filled out online in a dedicated page of the website.
Circulating Osteocalcin‐Positive Cells: A new biomarker for bone metastasis? By Antonio Maurizi.
The skeleton is the frequent site of tumor metastasis, especially for breast and prostate cancer, and patients experience bone metastasis have a poor prognosis. The main challenge in the field of bone metastasis is represented by the development of a clinical tool for the early diagnosis. Indeed, most of the time they are detected when the destruction of bone tissue is advanced and difficult to revert. The canonical bone turnover markers have been extensively investigated as potential prognostic tools. However, their prognostic value was low.
A possible marker that is not compliant with this low prognostic value, is probably osteocalcin. Indeed, a recent paper published in the last issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research (JBMR) suggest a role for the circulating osteocalcin-positive cells as potential biomarker for bone metastasis in Breast Cancer (BrCa) patients. In this paper Kyung‐Hun Lee and colleagues demonstrated that circulating osteocalcin-positive cells (cOC) increase in the early phase of BrCa-associated bone metastasis predicting their progression. Interestingly, an in vivo experiment in a mouse model of bone metastasis revealed the increase of the cOC in the blood when the osteolytic lesions were not detectable by bioluminescence. All together the results showed by Kyung‐Hun Lee and colleagues strongly suggested a high prognostic values of the circulating osteocalcin-positive cells for the BrCa-associated bone metastasis.
Once again osteocalcin is back in fashion and this work adds a new piece in the complex puzzle of its functions. Of course, clinical studies are needed to further validate the prognostic values of the circulating osteocalcin positive cells and to include this tool in the clinical practice.
We mourn the loss of Jean-Pierre David, an esteemed colleague and expert in the field. He was an active member of the Grants & Awards Committee and first co-chair of the Communications Action Group – Read full announcement
Education and Events:
ECTS 2020 Digital Congress On Demand: while the ECTS@Home weekly series is going on until 8 December 2020, registered delegates can access Live Prime Time Virtual Platform and benefit of session recordings, eposters, exhibition and network with online delegates.
Digital Training Course on Diagnostic Tests for Osteoporosis – Clinical Use of Bone Turnover Markers: 17 November 2020 organised in collaboration with the Mellanby Center for Bone Research. Check Programme and Register now at a very special rate (free access for ECTS 2020 Delegates)
ECTS Webinar: Tips and Tricks for histomorphometry, 12 November 2020 9am CET by Nathalie Sims – Register here
The coupling of bone remodeling to energy metabolism, webinar organised by the ECTS Academy, 26 November 2020 4pm CET by Megan Weivoda – More information and registration
Webinar on Osteocytes with Teresita Bellido, 10 December 2020 4pm CET –Register here
ECTS Named Awards: bestowed in recognition of our colleagues and friends who have contributed so much to the field of bone and mineral metabolism – Submit your nominations until 30 November
Other Announcements and Events
Herbert Fleisch Workshop 2021 postponed to 2022 but series of virtual workshops will be organised. Registrations will be offered to ECTS members – Register your interest to participate
ICCBH Virtual Forum: Bone Fragility Disorders in Children: Online event from 18-20 November 2020. Registration open – More information
New webinar serieson recent developments in the field ofectopic calcification, from The EuroSoftCalcNet COST Action:
December 15, 2020, 4:00 pm CET, Skin changes in pseudoxanthoma elasticum: then and now by Ludovic Martin
January 19, 2021, 4:00 pm CET, Generalized Arterial Calcification of Infancy by Frank Rutsch,
February 16, 2021, 4:00 pm CET, Vascular Calcification: A Window into Mechanisms and Treatments for Age-related Cardiovascular Disease by Cathy Shanahan – Join the webinar
ECTS is thankful to its Corporate Members and other companies that have supported ECTS activities through unrestricted educational grants. These sponsors have in no way contributed to or influenced the content.
STAY CONNECTED:
Editor in chief: Teun De Vries (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Co-editors: Petar Milovanovic (Belgrade, Serbia), Cristiana Cipriani (Rome, Italy)
