ECTS 2018. Source Maria-Bernadette Madel (Own Work)
From 26 to 29 May 2018, the 45th Congress of the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS) took place in the Spanish city of Valencia. The ECTS Congress is considered the most important European research event in the musculoskeletal field. This annual international conference allows researchers and clinicians working in the field of bones the opportunity to meet and discuss the latest developments in research and patient care.
One of the main topics of the conference was osteoporosis, a condition that can be caused by genetic predisposition as well as chronic inflammatory diseases among other causes, resulting in weak and brittle bones. Osteoporosis causes more than 8 million fractures per year and is estimated to affect more than 200 million people worldwide.
The scientific programme for this year’s ECTS Congress comprehensively catered for basic and translational scientists as well as clinical researchers working in the field of bones and related diseases. Approximately a 1000 global delegates from a wide range of disciplines attended ECTS2018, and took part in workshops on the latest clinical practices as well panel discussions and poster presentations on current or new research advances and views from various stakeholders.
One of the highlights of ECTS2018 was the Expert Session and the Symposium on inflammation and bone, where immunological aspects leading to pathological bone destruction were intensively discussed. In this context, the human microbiome has been recently discovered to influence bone health through its interaction with the immune system, especially in post-menopausal osteoporosis. Therefore, this relatively new actor in the regulation of bone turnover became a subject of intense discussions during the conference. Several sessions were held on this topic, such as the measurement and interpretation of the microbiome and a symposia about microbiome discovery and energy metabolism.
With all its informative and interesting presentations and workshops, the 45th ECTS was a very successful event allowing the exchange of the most recent scientific insights in order to further advance and improve the research and treatment in the multitude of bone pathologies.
Article by Maria-Bernadette Madel