Eurobonet

Newsletter 03/08
Dear Colleagues and Friends the third Annual General Meeting of the EuroBoNeT project was very ably hosted by Prof. Antonio Llombart Bosch at the Colegio Oficial de Médicos in Valencia, Spain, from 21-23 January, 2009. Prior to the meeting Prof. Llombart Bosch also organized a bone tumour pathology tutorial for the Spanish scientific community on tumours and pseudo-tumoural lesions. The course included presentations by Antonio Llombart Bosch, Franco Bertoni (IOR), Pancras Hogendoorn (LUMC) and Enrique De Alava (CIC). Several course participants also attended the EuroBoNeT meeting. During the EuroBoNeT Meeting proper, oral contributions were given by the workpackage and research line leaders. Forty-one posters were displayed, three young researchers (Drs. Martins, Zuntini and Neumann) described their staff exchange experiences before the General Assembly, and SOLVO made an interesting company presentation. Leida Rozeman from LUMC's management team outlined the new online reporting system to all present in the hope that the new user-friendly system will considerably aid financial reporting by all partners. Two eminent scientists, in the persons of Profs. Poul Sorensen (University of British Columbia) and Ivan Stamenkovic (University of Lausanne), delivered cutting-edge lectures entitled, "Targeting kinase pathways in bone cancers" and "Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Origins of Sarcoma", respectively. The meeting was also graced by the presence of network advisory board members, Profs. Fredrik Bosman (University of Lausanne) and Robert S. Benjamin (Texas University). Almost 120 EuroBoNeT people took part in the event, making attendance higher than last year and indicative of network growth. Along with the periodic RL meetings, the general annual meeting marks an excellent opportunity to personally meet the other consortium members, discuss research, and exchange ideas for collaboration. A link to the Annual meeting programme is provided for your convenience. Angelo Paolo Dei Tos 561--n9 bulletin.pdf

Photo: Invited speaker Stamenkovic	Photo: Presidente Ilustre Colegio Oficial de Medicos de Valencia
Photo: Advisory board Valencia
Photo: Participants of the EuroBoNeT meeting in Valencia

The Forum section of the website is underused. Please all take the time to log into the forum in the protected website area and start using this practical tool as a means of opening up interaction within the wider EuroBoNet group!

Visit USCAP United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Many pathologists involved in EuroBoNeT visited the 2009 annual meeting of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, held in Boston march 7-13. During the companion meeting of the international society of bone and soft tissue pathology (ISBSTP), chaired by Dr. Paolo Dei Tos, the role of molecular genetics and cytogenetics in tumours of the soft tissue and bone was discussed. Dr. Pancras Hogendoorn presented an update of the molecular genetics in bone tumors, in which much of the work performed within Eurobonet was shown. In addition, during the poster sessions many studies performed within EuroBoNet were presented and discussed. For more information see www.uscap.org . In addition, many many of us EuroBoNeT pathologists were invited to meet with the chordoma patient organization. Josh Sommer, a clival chordoma patient, and his mother, founded the organization to encourage research to chordoma in order to find a cure for the disease. By bringing us all together over lunch we were encouraged to exchange ideas about the diagnostic difficulties with chordoma and about tissue banking to facilitate research to chordoma. The patient organization already collaborated with the group of Dr. Adrienne Flanagan who is part of EuroBoNeT. The foundation has two chordoma cell lines that will be made available to EuroBoNeT and they have a prize available for those who succeed in establishing new cell lines. Josh and his mother were impressed by the organization and the biobank that we established within EuroBoNet. For more information see www.chordomafoundation.org.

DENTAL RESEARCH STUDY - Multiple Osteochondroma Dental Questionnaire - Initiative of the MHE Research Foundation
Multiple Osteochondromas (MO) previously known as Multiple Hereditary Exostoses (MHE) or Hereditary Multiple Exostoses (HME) is relatively rare disorder associated with formation of bone outgrowths at multiple sites in the skeleton. The presence of dental problems has been communicated to us by some MO patients, but as far as we know, there are no medical data published that would confirm this observation. As problems with teeth might severely affect not only the self esteem but also general health, hence we recognize that dental health in MO patients needs to be investigated. With the support and collaboration of Pancras Hogendoorn, M.D., Ph.D. and Malgorzata Wiweger, Ph.D. from the Leiden University Medical Center(LUMC) The Netherlands a questionnaire has been designed that could be answered without need of seeing any dentist or other medical professionals. We hope that this survey will contribute to better understanding of the MO disorder and improve the quality of care given to MO patients. All Support groups and individuals who suffer from MO are invited to participate in this study by answering the questionnaire. In order to reach as many MO patients as possible and still be able to manage the project researchers from LUMC decided to place an on-line survey on the MHE Research Foundation website located on an encrypted secure webpage. All responses will be collected by Mrs. Sarah Ziegler (Vice President of the MHE Research Foundation, National Director of Research & Coordinator of Clinical Information, Executive Director of the National MHE Research Registry), encoded in order to keep anonymity /confidentiality of the respondents and forwarded to the team of researchers at the LUMC for analyses. The research team aims to make the results publicly available in a form of an article published in a scientific journal, so basic researchers; medical professionals and people affected by MO will be able to read the results. Please follow this link to fill out the questionnaire: https://mheresearchfoundation.org/mherf_dental_questionnaire.html. As a quick reference a picture of the teeth has been placed here.