Sessions and lectures on bone marrow adiposity (BMA) are increasingly present in conferences from societies specialized in various fields such as bone, endocrinology, hematology and imaging. This reflects the emerging clinical relevance of BMA, which is altered in diverse diseases such as cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, anorexia nervosa, blood malignancies and in conditions like aging.
The increasing interest in the “fatty” component of the bone marrow, known as bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) led a group of scientists in 2017 to found the Bone Marrow Adiposity Society (BMAS), with Prof. Pierre Hardouin as founding President. BMAS actually has its origins back in 2015 through the BONEAHEAD (BONE Adiposity in HEAlth and Disease) initiative, a group funded by the French Research Agency with the goal of building a European network and applying to international funding calls.
The aims of BMAS are to advance the knowledge of BMA by facilitating interdisciplinary exchanges, developing research strategies, and promoting the emergence of new concepts with the hope of improving understanding and treatment of the numerous diseases in which altered BMA is a feature and may be a target. This is done by organizing international meetings on BMA, where experts from different fields are invited to join, and through the establishment of working groups in which BMAS members work together to pursue the aforementioned aims. Thus far, the society has produced and published three consensus articles about standard nomenclature, methods to study BMAT, and biobanking for BMA research (Bravenboer et al. FENDO 2020, Tratwal et al. FENDO 2020, Lucas et al. FENDO 2021).
One of BMAS’s key goals is also to promote BMAT research by training and supporting young scientists interested in this field. Indeed, since 2018 the society has included a Young Investigator representative in the Executive Board, and in 2021 a young investigator group was established, named Next Generation BMAS (NGBMAS).
So far, six successful international meetings on BMA have been organized by local organizing committees in collaboration with BMAS board members. The inaugural BMAS Summer School, held in 2021, was coordinated by a group of young scientists and addressed to trainees and junior investigators interested in the BMA field. The upcoming 7th BMAS meeting will be held in Athens, Greece, on 28-30th September 2022 (More info here), and a BMAS Summer School is scheduled for 2023.
The officers of BMAS include a President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. These officers are members of an Executive Board (EB) that consists of up to 12 members. Moreover, BMAS includes a Scientific Board, with up to 14 members elected by the EB. Positions in the boards and general membership are open to researchers with interest in BMA field including both basic and clinical scientists.
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BMAS Executive Board members
BMA 2022 meeting flyer