ECTS Postdoctoral Fellowship

2008 Award Announcement

The 2009 grant applications are now closed.
The 2010 awards will be announced in June 2009.

Description: Grants are available for European postdoctoral fellows to assist with expenses relating to their own research project, which must be relevant to the field of calcified tissues and related topics

The total amount available is €60,000 (Euro) payable in instalments of €30,000 (Euro) per annum for 2 years

The purpose of these grants is

• to help meet some of the immediate costs of a project relevant to the field of calcified tissues
• to support and stimulate research on calcified tissues and related topics
• to assist in attracting young researchers to join the ECTS

Projects based on collaboration between European laboratories are more than welcome and will be favourably considered.

Eligibility:

Candidates must fulfil the following criteria:

• applicant must be a member of ECTS
• applicant to be within 10 years of gaining MD or PhD
• previous recipients of an ECTS Postdoctoral Fellowship, ECTS/Amgen award, ECTS Career Establishment award or ECTS PhD Studentship are not eligible to apply
• applicant must be based in Europe

Please note:

Grants can be used for salary, consumables, travel, fees or supplies

Applications must be made on-line from the ECTS web site

Review Procedure

All applications are reviewed by an independent panel of reviewers and any conflicts of interest are identified and dealt with appropriately.

Report:

Successful candidates will be required to submit a written report on the progress of their research at the end of the grant period and the final instalment will be payable on receipt of the report.

2008 Awards

Three 2008 ECTS Postdoctoral Fellowships were presented on Wednesday 28 May to Aline Bozec (Research Institute of Molecular Pathology GmbH, Vienna, Austria), Marco Eijken (ErasmusMC Rotterdam, The Netherlands) and Barbara Peruzzi (University of L’Aquila, Italy).

Full Sized Image (220k)

2008 award winners Aline Bozec, Barbara Peruzzi and Marco Eijken

Dr Bozec will be working on “The role of the transcription factor Fra-2/AP-1 in skeletal biology” at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas in Madrid, Dr Eijken’s project is entitled “Comparative analysis of bone and vascular mineralization: activin signaling to control extracellular matrix composition” and Dr Peruzzi’s “Involvement of the IGF-1/IGFBPs axis in the IL-6/c-Src-mediated regulation of osteoblast function”.

ABSTRACTS

ECTS Postdoctoral Fellowship- Aline Bozec

Millions of people each year are affected by bone-related diseases such as osteoporosis. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying bone metabolism is essential for developing novel drugs for treating such diseases. The activator protein-1 AP-1 transcription factor is a central regulator of bone homeostasis. Genetically modified mice and cells have provided important insights into the biological functions of AP-1 in skeletal development. Recent data suggest that the Fos-related AP-1 protein Fra-2 can affect all bone cell lineages, the chondrocytes, osteoblasts and osteoclasts. I plan to investigate the relationship between Fra-2 and growth factor signalling in bone cells and its relation to bone disease. Moreover, I will use genetically modified embryonic stem ES cells to establish an in vitro model system that could represent a powerful source for differentiated bone cells for cell replacement therapy. These findings will lead to a better understanding of treating diseases affecting the skeleton.

ECTS Postdoctoral Fellowship – Marco Eijken

Calcification of bone is a vital process that ensures good quality and bone strength. However, tissue calcification is also observed at places were it is unwanted such as the vessel wall in case of atherosclerosis. Although calcification is vital process in bone and a major cause of mortality in vascular disease, the mechanism of tissue calcification is yet poorly understood. In order to be able to specifically enhance calcification in bone or specifically prevent calcification of the vessel wall more knowledge about tissue calcification is required. In our study we will compare the process of calcification of the vessel wall to the process of calcification in bone at the molecular level. Moreover, we will investigate if compounds, such as activins, that have been shown to be potent regulators of calcification can be used.

ECTS Postdoctoral Fellowship – Barbara Peruzzi

In inflammation-mediated bone diseases, involvement of the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 occurs in most cases. While IL-6-dependent effect on osteoclasts has been well characterized, regarding osteoblasts, IL-6 is described to decrease cell function. In order to define the mechanisms underlying this regulation, our previous studies described an interplay between IL-6 and the tyrosine-kinase c-Src, by which osteoblasts are maintained in a less differentiated status. In order to further investigate how these molecules regulate each other, in this study we hypothesise the involvement of the IGF-1/IGFBPs axis in the c-Src/IL-6-mediated osteoblast regulation. IGF-1 action on osteoblasts depends on the activity of the IGFBPs, therefore, we hypothesise that IL-6 and c-Src could modulate IGFBPs activity rather than IGF-1 itself. We expect to demonstrate that the IGF-1/IGFBP axis represents not only an important regulator of osteoblast physiology and pathology, but also a new determinant for chronic inflammation-mediated bone diseases.

Top of page