It was a very pleasant surprise and great honour for me to be informed that I had been nominated for and awarded the ECTS Philippe Bordier Award 2017. Philippe Bordier was a great clinical researcher who is probably best known for his contributions to developing bone histomorphometric analysis into the highly valuable tool in bone research as we know it today and for developing the Bordier bone biopsy tool.
The ECTS clinical research award was named after Philippe Bordier and receiving this ECTS award for clinical research therefore makes me humble but it also made me realise that we are all standing on the shoulders of those who did bone research before us and that we should do the best to deliver good and relevant science and thereby pave the way for the future of bone research and future bone researchers.
I became interested in bone and bone research when I first began my clinical training in endocrinology in 1988 and I will be forever grateful to my mentors; Erik Eriksen, Leif Mosekilde and Peder Charles who introduced me to bone and bone research. My PhD was an investigation of the effects of thyroid hormones on bone and their potential role in the development of osteoporosis. I then became interested in genetics of bone research and that interest has followed me ever since and led to many inspiring collaborations within Europe and throughout the world. The research of genetics of osteoporosis and other bone diseases is a very good example of how research have changed over time. I did my first candidate gene studies in the local laboratory at Aarhus University Hospital comprising just a few hundred patients and controls, but today many thousand patients and controls are needed and more than 500000 genetic variants should be investigated before a publication can be prepared. This development has among other things also lead to much more international collaboration which has improved the science significantly, but also is great fun.
In addition to my mentors, I am also grateful to my previous and current PhD students and laboratory staff. It is a pleasure working with such a dedicated and talented team.
Learn more about the Philippe Bordier Award and see the 2017 Ceremony photos at
https://ectsoc.org/grants-