The 2018 annual ICMRS-ASBMR Membership Meeting was held in Montreal, Canada, on September 28, 2018. More than 80 ICMRS members attended this meeting. To enhance the social bonding among our members and to better nurture our young investigators, this meeting adopted a new format, roundtable discussions, by asking the attendees to choose their interested topics during online registration and stay at the chosen table during the entire meeting. Each table was led by 2-4 discussion leaders volunteered by the lifetime members of our society.
The meeting started with a Welcome Message from Dr. Ling Qin, President-elect and Chair of Program Committee, by acknowledging those ICMRS members who help to organize this meeting and introducing the new meeting format. Following that, Dr. Tingting Tang gave a Presidential Speech summarizing the progress of our society since his inauguration last year and his future plan in the next year, focusing on leadership and committees, membership recruitment, communications, regional development, journals, and fundraising. Specifically, he introduced the newly established Scientific Committees, including the Bone and Joint Biology Committee, the Stem cells and Regenerative Medicine Committee, the Biomechanical and Biomedical Engineering Committee and the Biomaterials and Translational Research Committee. Dr. Lin Chen from Army Medical University in Chongqing, Dr. Gang Li from Chinese University of Hongkong, Dr. Ming Zhang from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Dr. Changsheng Liu from East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai have been nominated as the chair for each committee.
This meeting was then highlighted by the announcement of Webster Jee Young Investigator Awardees: Yunshu Wu from Sichuan University, Kazuki Inoue from Hospital for Special Surgery, Yujiao Han from Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and Robert Tower from the University of Pennsylvania. Each awardee gave a brief introduction about their outstanding research. They were presented with an award plaque and a cash prize of $400 each.
The following roundtable discussions were set in 8 tables with topics such as Pathways to be independent, Industry career, Opportunities in China, Bone remodeling, Osteocyte biology, Bone biomechanics, Cartilage and diseases, and Mesenchymal stem cells. These discussions were actively carried out till the end of the meeting.
