One of the excellent things about being a scientist is you get to travel, present the work you've been doing, and meet some really amazing other scientists. This week I had the pleasure of being up in Edinburgh for the Bone Research Society meeting, this year extra special as it was co-organised with the British Society for Matrix Biology.
A range of exciting work was presented, inlcuding recent opinions on the progression of Romosozumab in its clinical trails (now in phase III after great results in phase II), and a history of the genetics of sclerostosis and van Buchem's diseases - both congenital diseases affecting some of the molecular players in the Wnt signalling pathway, which of course Edo, Agnieszka and Dan currently work on.
Wim van Hul was there at the beginning of the discovery of these interesting conditions, and he was able to give a fanastic, engaging personal account of the travails of trying to find a mutation - which sometimes isn't even in a gene that makes a protein! - before the genomics age started.
These diseases are incredibly rare (fewer than 100 people worldwide have them) and are localised to a small village in Holland and in the Africaans population of South Africa. Despite the common Dutch ancestry, Wim assured us they are entirely separate conditions.
I was happy to give my talk on fracture targetting using nanoparticles in the Regenerative Medicine slot, which (I think!) went well. Also it was great to catch up with my old boss, Molly Stevens colleagues from Scotland and my friend and Dan's co-supervisor Claire Clarkin - here she is!!