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Speaker ProfilesTim Arnett graduated with a BSc in Biology from the University of East Anglia and gained his PhD at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, working in the laboratory of Iain MacIntyre. He held postdoctoral positions at Columbia University and University College London before taking up a lectureship in the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology at UCL in 1986. In 1991-92, he undertook sabbatical work at the University of Texas. He was appointed Reader in Mineralised Tissue Biology at UCL in 2001. In addition to his work on the control of osteoclast and osteoblast function by extracellular pH and oxygen, he is interested in the role of extracellular nucleotides in bone. Tim Arnett is a past member of the editorial board of the Journal of Bone & Mineral Research, and currently serves on the editorial boards of Calcified Tissue International and Endocrinology; he was secretary of the Bone Research Society from 2004-7. Wendy Balemans completed her studies as an Engineer in Biochemistry
in 1994 and received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University
of Antwerp in Belgium in 2002 where she worked on human genetics
of sclerosing bone dysplasias. In the same year, she started a postdoctoral
training in the Department of Genomic Technologies based at Janssen
Pharmaceutica (Beerse, Belgium), which is part of Johnson &
Johnson. There, she mainly focussed her research on target identification
and validation for bipolar depression using mouse models. In 2003,
she rejoined the Department of Medical Genetics at the University
of Antwerp and obtained a postdoctoral research fellowship from
the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (F.W.O. Vlaanderen). Currently,
her main research activities are directed towards the understanding
of the role of canonical Wnt signaling in bone metabolism. Matt Brown is a clinician-scientist who trained initially in medicine
and rheumatology in Sydney, Australia before moving in 1994 to Oxford,
England. Working first at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics
and then the Botnar Research Centre (University of Oxford Institute
of Musculoskeletal Sciences), he pursued gene-mapping and genetic
epidemiology studies in musculoskeletal diseases, including ankylosing
spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, chondrocalcinosis and osteoporosis.
He was appointed Professor of Musculoskeletal Sciences at University
of Oxford in 2004 and was Deputy Director of the Botnar Research
Centre from 2003-5. In 2005 Matt returned to Australia, taking a
chair of immunogenetics at University of Queensland, based at the
Diamantina Institute of Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine
in Brisbane. There he continues to work in musculoskeletal genetics,
both in humans and in mouse models. He has published 73 original
research papers in peer-reviewed journals, including in Nature,
Nature Genetics, and Science. Professor Robert Coleman is Professor and Honorary Consultant
Medical Oncologist at the Cancer Research Centre, Academic Unit
of Clinical Oncology, Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield. He qualified
in 1978 from the University of London and subsequently trained in
Oncology at Guy's Hospital, London and Western General Hospital,
Edinburgh before taking up his current post in 1991. He is Director
of the Cancer Research Centre in Sheffield and the Research Lead
for the North Trent Cancer Research Network in England. Fraser Coxon graduated in Applied and Human Biology from the University
of Aston, then studied for a PhD in Bone Biology with Professor
Graham Russell at the University of Sheffield. After the award of
his Doctorate in 1997, he moved to the University of Aberdeen to
work with Professor Mike Rogers on the mechanism of action of bisphosphonates
as an MRC-funded Research Fellow and subsequently as an ARC Research
Fellow. This work led to the identification of the enzyme target
of these drugs and revealed the importance of prenylated small GTPases
for osteoclast function. More recently he discovered a new class
of bisphosphonate-related anti-resorptive compounds that selectively
inhibit Rab GTPases, highlighting the critical role of these master
regulators of vesicular transport in osteoclasts. This has also
led to his interest in osteopetrosis, a bone disease in which osteoclasts
are dysfunctional, often due to defects in vesicular trafficking
pathways. Dr Coxon currently holds an RCUK Research Fellowship at
the University of Aberdeen, and his current research is focused
on the role that Rab GTPases play in regulating vesicular transport
in osteoclasts, characterisation of the osteoclast defect in novel
cases of osteopetrosis, and the pharmacology of novel bisphosphonate
analogues. Florent Elefteriou graduated from Burgundy University with a Master
in Biochemistry and obtained his PhD in 2000 from the Claude-Bernard
University (Lyon, France) working on cell-extracellular interactions
at the Institute of Protein Biology and Chemistry, in Dr Robert
Garrone’s group. He then held a post-doctoral position at
Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, TX, USA) in Dr Gerard Karsenty’s
group before taking up an Assistant Professor position at UT-Health
Science Center of San Antonio (TX, USA). Dr Elefteriou was appointed
at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN, USA) in 2006 in the newly
created Center for Bone Biology directed by Dr Gregory Mundy. Dr
Elefteriou’s work focuses on the regulation of bone remodeling
by the nervous system, on bone cancer metastasis and on the skeletal
defects of neurofibromatosis. Associate Professor Matthew Gillespie is an Associate Director
of St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (SVI) in Melbourne,
where he is Head of the Bone, Joint and Cancer Unit. His research
is focussed on actions of factors derived from breast cancers, and
their relevance to breast cancer metastasis in bone, and how T cell-derived
cytokines impact upon the formation and resorption of bone. Steven R Goldring, MD, is the St Giles Chair and Chief Scientific
Officer at Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Medical College of
Cornell University in New York City. He previously was a Professor
of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Rheumatology
at New England Baptist Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center, Boston, Massachusetts. After receiving his MD from Washington
University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, he completed
his medical residency training at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and
his rheumatology training at the Massachusetts General Hospital
in Boston. His research interests focus on the cellular and molecular
mechanisms involved in the regulation of physiological and pathological
bone remodeling. He is the President and past Secretary-Treasurer
of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research. He previously
served as the Chairman of the Orthopaedics and Musculoskeletal Study
Section at the National Institutes of Health and has been the Chairman
of the Gordon Research Conference on the Molecular Biology of Bones
and Teeth, Co-Chairman of the Keystone Conference on the Pathogenesis
of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Vice-Chairman of the National Institutes
of Health, Consensus Development Panel on Osteoporosis. Dr. Goldring
is a co-recipient of the Carol Nachman Prize in Rheumatology and
has received the Arthritis Foundation’s James H. Fairclough,
Jr. and Marian Ropes Awards and the Paget’s Disease Foundation
Research Award. Neva Elizabeth Haites is originally from Australia where she studied
Biochemistry and obtained a PhD. She studied Medicine in Aberdeen
and completed her training in the UK. She is the Professor in Medical
Genetics at the University of Aberdeen, Head of the College of Life
Science and Medicine, Vice Principal of the University of Aberdeen
and an Honorary Consultant Clinical Geneticist at Aberdeen Royal
Hospitals NHS Trust. She is a member of the NHS Grampian Board and
Chairs their Service Strategy and Redesign Committee. Morten A. Karsdal achieved his master of biotechnical engineering
at the “Technical University of Denmark” in 1998. He
achieved his PhD at the “Technical University of Southern
Denmark” 2004, with special focus on the cell and molecular
biology of bone. Dr Karsdal is presently the Head of Pharmacology
at Nordic Bioscience, and has previously had various research positions
at smaller biotech companies in Denmark. Morten Karsdal has more
than 55 pier reviewed publications within the bone and cartilage
field, and he has received numerous awards a range of conferences,
including the ECTS, ASBMR, OARSI and NYAS meetings. Uwe Kornak finished his master in Biochemistry in 1996. His thesis
was on the role of the clc-7 chloride channel in brain and bone.
This chloride channel turned out to reside in late endosomal and
lysosomal function and to be functionally coupled with the v-type
H+-ATPase. A loss of function abolishes bone resorption. In 2001
he finished medical school and went to Paris for a postdoc position
at the Inserm U 606. Since 2003 he has been a subgroup leader at
the Institute for Medical Genetics at the Charité Hospital
in Berlin. His principal research interest has been the pathogenesis
of recessive and dominant forms of osteopetrosis. 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 homeostasis. Berent Prakken is professor of paediatric immunology at the University
Medical Centre Utrecht, the Netherlands. He studied Medicine at
the University of Groningen, specialized into paediatrics at the
University of Utrecht. He did a fellowship in clinical immunology
and started basic research at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
in Utrecht (with prof. van Eden). He received his PhD cum laude
in 1997 at the University of Utrecht. He continued his research
at the University of California San Diego (with Professor Albani).
Since 2000 he has headed up a research group that studies the regulation
of inflammation in chronic inflammatory diseases. The main focus
of his research is on the role of regulatory cells in the control
of inflammation; the development of immune therapy for arthritis;
and the role of heat shock proteins as targets for specific immune
regulation. The work of his group has received numerous national
and international awards. Prakken is scientific director of the
Eureka Institute for Translational medicine (www.eurekainstitute.org) Stuart Ralston graduated in medicine from Glasgow University in
1978 and developed an interest in metabolic bone disease during
postgraduate training with Dr Iain T Boyle at Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
Professor Ralston trained in general internal medicine and rheumatology
in Glasgow between 1981 and 1988. He was appointed as a Wellcome
Senior Clinical Research Fellow and Honorary Consultant at the University
of Edinburgh between 1988 and 1990 and moved to Aberdeen to take
up an appointment as Senior Lecturer in Medicine in 1991. He was
appointed as Professor of Medicine and Bone Metabolism in 1996 and
was Director of the Institute of Medical Sciences at Aberdeen between
2002 and 2004. Professor Ralston took up the ARC chair of Rheumatology
at the University of Edinburgh in February 2005 and was appointed
as Head of the School of Molecular and Clinical Medicine in November
2005. He is an Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist with Lothian Health
Board and is lead clinician for Osteoporosis services within NHS
Lothian. Dr Ruth Ross is a senior lecturer in Pharmacology at The University
of Aberdeen in Scotland. Her primary research focus is cannabinoid
receptor pharmacology and the pharmacology of the endocannabinoids
and related metabolites. This research is directed towards discovery
of the role of the endocannabinoids in pain, inflammation, obesity
and bone disorders and the development of small molecules, which
modulate the various elements of the endocannabinoid system as novel
therapeutics. Graham Russell graduated with first-class honours in biochemistry
from Cambridge and then worked in the MRC Unit in Leeds, gaining
his PhD. He worked in Oxford, Bern and Harvard University before
being appointed to the Chair of Human Metabolism and Clinical Biochemistry
in Sheffield University. Rob van ‘t Hof originally studied Biology at the University
of Utrecht in the Netherlands. During his PhD at the University
of Leiden, he developed an interest in the regulation of osteoclast
formation and activity, with a special interest in the cross-talk
between osteoblasts and osteoclasts. After his PhD, he moved to
the University of Aberdeen to study the effects of Nitric Oxide
(NO) on bone cells in the group of prof. Ralston. This lead to the
publication of several papers highlighting the importance of this
small molecule as a local regulator of bone metabolism. In July
2005 Dr van ‘t Hof moved to the University of Edinburgh to
take up his current post as senior lecturer in the Rheumatic Diseases
Unit.
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