The YCCMD WORKSHOP: ANALYSIS OF SKELETAL TISSUES:
STATE OF THE ART 2007.

Part of the Educational Mission of the YCCMD is to make more generally available training in key methodologies used in our Physiology Core to members of Sister Cores.  Particular strengths in the Physiology Core are static and dynamic histomorphometry and our special stains techniques for hard tissues.  With support from a variety of sources on December 14th we organized a half-day workshop on state-of-the-art methods in skeletal analysis for junior faculty, and in particular Pilot Project Awardees.

Click here to see photos! Workshop Photos December 2007

Registration was free for all attendees.  A unique aspect of our Workshop was that we provided travel awards for all Pilot Project Awardees from our sister Cores and as funds permitted for young investigators from other academic centers on the East Coast. 

Frankly, the workshop was a success far beyond our expectations.  There was a major snowstorm the day of the workshop despite which we had 90 attendees including representatives from three of the five NIAMS-supported P30 Musculoskeletal Core Centers.  We gave over 40 travel awards to young investigators, for many of whom this was their first exposure to methods in skeletal research.  However, even the senior investigators told me that they found the workshop extremely useful.  The speakers were outstanding. The speakers were asked to make their presentations practical and accessible to new investigators and to include concrete examples illustrating who their methodology helped illuminate a particular research problem.  Each speaker did an outstanding job in meeting this challenge.

The feedback from attendees was universally and glowingly positive.  Many young investigators made contacts and collaborations at the workshop that will bear tangible benefits for their particular projects.  Several attendees asked for a workshop syllabus.  That is a project for our next workshop.

The Directors of our sister Cores are excited about sponsoring a workshop next year, and one of our Sister Cores has already agreed to sponsor this project. We will work closely with them and share what we learned in organizing our workshop.  The Program for our workshop in 2007 follows.

Analysis of Skeletal Tissues: State of the Art 2007
December 14, 2007
Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale

MicroCT
                                    Douglas J. Adams, Ph.D.
                                    Associate Professor of Orthopaedics
                                    University of Connecticut

Biomechanics
                                    Marjolein CH van der Meulen, Ph.D.
                                    Associate Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
                                    Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Histomorphometry
                                    David W. Dempster, Ph.D.
                                    Professor of Pathology
                                    Columbia University

Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR)
                                    Adele L. Boskey, Ph.D.
                                    Director, The Musculoskeletal Repair & Regeneration Core Center
                                    Hospital for Special Surgery, NY

CryoJane
                                    David W. Rowe, M.D.
                                    Professor of Genetics & Developmental Biology
                                    University of Connecticut Health Center

Special Stains for Bone
                                    Nancy Troiano, M.S.
                                    Manager, Bone Histology & Histomorphometry, YCCMD
                                    Yale University

We gratefully acknowledge these companies who made funding available for this symposium:
Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, Scanco Medical USA MicroCT Systems, Pfizer, Inc., Optical Analysis Corporation Microscopy & Imaging Solutions, OsteoMetrics Histomorphometry Software, and Instrumedics, Inc.