ECTS/Alliance for Better Bone Health (Procter
& Gamble Pharmaceuticals and sanofi-aventis) Iain
T Boyle Award
We are pleased to announce that the deadline
for nominations for the Iain Boyle Award has been extended
to 5 December 2008.
Please submit your nomination here.
2008 Award Announcement
Professor Iain Thomson Boyle (1935-2001) contributed
greatly to the field of mineral metabolism and his work
on osteoporosis was known and acclaimed nationally and
internationally. The 2008 award will be announced during
the 35th European Symposium on Calcified Tissues in
Barcelona 24-28 May 2008. The award is for €5000
(Euros)
Eligibility
This award is open to young scientists who have made
significant progress and contribution to the field of
bone and calcified tissue. The nominee should be within
10 years of completing their PhD (or equivalent).
Review Procedure
All applications 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.
2008 Award
The 2008 ECTS/Alliance for Better
Bone Health Iain T Boyle Award was presented
on Tuesday 27 May to Dr Rutger van Bezooijen
from the Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands.
Dr Bezooijen’s current interest is focused on
characterization of the mechanism by which sclerostin
affects Wnt signaling, the regulation of sclerostin
expression, and detailed clinical analysis of patients
with sclerosteosis and van Buchem disease.
Full Sized Image
(200k)
2008 award winner Rutger
van Bezooijen with The Alliance for Better Bone Health
representatives Oscar Fillat and David Cahall and ECTS
President Richard Eastell
2007 Award
Dr Uwe Kornak was selected
as the fifth recipient of the ECTS/Alliance for Better
Bone Health Iain T Boyle award, which was presented
during the 34th European Symposium on Calcified Tissues
in Copenhagen on 8 May 2007. Uwe Kornak is based at
the Institute for Medical Genetics in Berlin, Germany
and his main interests are the regulation of bone density
and NFI and bone. His main focus in the past has been
the pathogenesis of recessive and dominant forms of
osteopetrosis, which turned out to be caused by defects
in intracellular acidification mechanisms. He has subsequently
become involved with developmental aspects of skeletogenesis
and the role of different transcription factors like
Hoxd13, Runx2 and Mef2c. Recently, the scope of his
interests was further broadened by investigations on
Golgi function in bone homestasis.
2006 Award
Dr Florent Elefteriou was selected
as the fourth recipient of the Alliance for Better Bone
Health Iain T Boyle award.
Dr Elefteriou was trained in biochemistry
and genetics in Claude-Bernard University (France) and
then Baylor College of Medicine (USA) and is leading
since 2005 his own research group at UT-Health Science
Center of San Antonio. His major scientific contribution
to the bone field has been to uncover the role of the
central and peripheral nervous systems in the regulation
of bone remodeling.
His seminal work has demonstrated that
hypothalamic neurons responsive to the adipocyte-derived
hormone leptin inhibits bone formation and favor bone
resorption via the sympathetic nervous system and b2-adrenergic
receptors expressed by osteoblasts. He has also identified
using number of mutant mouse models the neuropeptide
CART and the melanocortin 4 receptor as additional and
possible central molecules involved in bone mass homeostasis.
His current research focuses on b2-adrenergic
signaling in osteoblats and on the characterization
of the molecular mechanisms causing the skeletal defects
observed in Neurofibromatosis.
2005
Award
Dr Tjeerd van Staa was selected as the third recipient
of the Alliance for Better Bone Health (Procter &
Gamble Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi-Aventis) award. Dr
van Staa has made major contributions to the epidemiology
of osteoporosis, with particular regard to glucocorticoid-induced
bone loss. His seminal work has demonstrated that
fracture risk in glucocorticoid treated patients rises
steeply soon after commencement of therapy; attenuates
rapidly after cessation of therapy; and occurs at prednisolone
doses less than those conventionally associated with
osteoporosis. His scholarly contributions have
had a major input upon clinical practice and have been
highly cited in the peer reviewed literature.
He continues to hold academic positions at the MRC Epidemiology
Resource Centre, University of Southampton and Institute
for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, the
Netherlands.
2004
Award
Wim Van Hul was selected as the second recipient of
the prestigious Alliance for Better Bone Health Iain
T. Boyle award. He is a researcher trained in
molecular biology and genetics who started, after his
PhD studies on the genetics of Alzheimer's disease,
his own research team at the Department of Medical Genetics
at the University and University Hospital in Antwerp,
Belgium. In the last decennium, his team has been very
successful in identifying and characterizing genes underlying,
mainly monogenic, genetic conditions associated with
an abnormal bone homeostasis. These include the
SOST gene underlying Van Buchem disease and sclerosteosis,
the role of TGFbeta-1 in Camurati-Engelmann disease,
the chloride channel ClCN7 in autosomal dominant osteopetrosis,
LRP5 in different sclerosing bone dysplasias as well
as the involvement of Msx2 and Alx4 in ossification
defects of the skull. He is currently coauthor of about
80 publications, many of them in journals of high impact.
2003 Award
Michael Rogers is an outstanding young scientist and
is a worthy recipient of this prestigious award. His
major scientific achievement has been to elucidate the
molecular mechanisms of action of bisphosphonate drugs.
He and his group are at the forefront of this research
and have clearly shown that bisphosphonates act on osteoclasts
by two distinct mechanisms. Simple bisphosphonates become
incorporated into toxic ATP analogues that induce osteoclast
apoptosis, whereas the more potent nitrogen-containing
bisphosphonates prevent prenylation of small GTPase
signalling proteins by inhibiting the enzyme FPP synthase.
He started this research on bisphosphonates during his
PhD studies in 1989 and over the following decade has
produced a very impressive number of publications.
Top of page
|
