Annual Meeting

Gerald D. Aurbach Memorial Lecture

Sunday, September 14, 2008
2:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
The Architectural Basis of Tissue Specificity: The Relationship Between the Genome and 3D Structure
Mina J. Bissell, Ph.D.
Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Dr. Bissell is a pioneer in the area of the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) and microenvironment in regulation of tissue-specific function with special emphasis in breast cancer, where she has changed some established paradigms. She earned an A.B. with honors in chemistry from Harvard/Radcliffe College and a Ph.D. in bacterial genetics from Harvard University. She joined the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 1972, became Director of Cell & Molecular Biology in 1988, and was appointed Director of all of Life Sciences in 1992. Upon stepping down as the Life Sciences Division Director, she was named Distinguished Scientist. She is also the OBER/DOE Distinguished Scientist Fellow in Life Sciences.

Dr. Bissell has authored more than 280 publications, is a member of 5 international scientific boards, and is on the editorial board of a dozen scientific journals, including Science magazine. She has given more than 80 ‘named and distinguished’ lectures. Her awards include the Lawrence Award and medal, the Mellon Award from the University of Pittsburgh, the Eli Lilly/Clowes Award from AACR, the first “Innovator Award” of the US DOD, the Brinker Award from Komen Foundation, the Discovery Health Channel Medical Honor and medal, the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center Ted Couch Lectureship and Award, the Pezcoller Foundation–AACR International Award for Cancer Research, the 2008 Excellence in Science Award from FASEB, and she has been awarded the 2008 Mina J. Bissell Award by the University of Porto.

Dr. Bissell was elected as a Fellow of AAAS, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. She served as President of the American Society of Cell Biology and the International Society of Differentiation. She has received honorary doctorates from Pierre & Marie Curie University in Paris and the University of Copenhagen.

Louis V. Avioli Memorial Lecture

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
8:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Bone Marrow Fat: Neighbor or Nemesis
Clifford Rosen, M.D.
Maine Medical Center

Dr. Clifford J. Rosen, M.D. is the Director of Clinical and Translational Research, and a Senior Scientist at Maine Medical Center. His other current positions include Senior Staff Scientist at the Jackson Laboratory, and Professor of Nutrition at the University of Maine, Orono. Dr. Rosen is the founder and Former Director of the Maine Center for Osteoporosis Research and Education. He was the first Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Densitometry, is the current Editor-in-Chief of the ASBMR Primer on the Metabolic Bone Diseases and Disorders of Mineral Metabolism, and just completed a term as Associate Editor for JBMR.

His publications include more than 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts, covering both clinical and basic bone biology. Dr. Rosen has overseen numerous phase II and III clinical trials, funded both privately and through the NIH. He is a member of the FDA Advisory Panel on Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs and a former chairperson of that committee. Dr. Rosen was president of ASBMR in 2002-2003, and Permanent Chair of the NIH Review Panel for Skeletal Biology and Bone Diseases for 2002-2004. He currently serves as a member of the NIAMS Scientific Advisory Board. His research interests include the genetic regulation of insulin-like growth factor relative to skeletal metabolism, PTH as an anabolic therapy, and the relationship between marrow adipogenesis and osteoblastogenesis.