The International Chinese Musculoskeletal Research Society (ICMRS) convened its 2023 Fall Membership Meeting virtually on October 8, 2023, led by Dr. Wentian Yang, Chair of the ICMRS Program Committee and faculty member at Brown University Alpert Medical School. Dr. Yang initiated the session with a warm welcome to the ICMRS community.
To commence, Professor Minghao Zheng, the immediate past president of ICMRS and a faculty member at the University of Western Australia, provided a brief overview of the society's achievements over the past two years. Under his leadership, ICMRS witnessed steady growth in revenue and membership, now boasting 685 members and 41 collaborative centers worldwide. New award categories were established to honor members' academic and leadership accomplishments, and the ICMRS-Oxford translation meeting in musculoskeletal research was successfully organized. Professor Zheng also outlined future challenges for ICMRS.
Following this, Dr. Guozhi Xiao, the newly elected President of ICMRS and a professor at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUST), delivered his inaugural speech. Dr. Xiao shared his aspirations for the community and articulated his vision for ICMRS in the coming years. He introduced his leadership team and committee chairs.
The event proceeded with the traditional Webster Jee Young Investigator Awards ceremony and keynote seminars. Professor Jerry Feng from Texas A&M announced the award winners, each of whom—Han Jiao (Hebei Medical University), Jiekang Wang (Johns Hopkins University), Jingruo Zhang (University of Texas Health Science Center), Tailin He (Southern University of Science and Technology), and Hao Zhou (Zhejiang University School of Medicine)—delivered brief presentations on their award-winning discoveries. They each received a $500 prize and a plaque. Professor Mone Zaidi from Icahn Sinai School of Medicine in New York presented a captivating lecture on "Pituitary Crosstalk Between Bone, Body Fat, and Brain." Additionally, Professor Veronique Lefebvre from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania shared recent findings on "SOXC Are Critical Regulators of Adult Bone Mass."
The Fall ICMRS membership meeting also featured updates from three editors, Professors Hui Yang, Yixian Qin, and Gang Li, who discussed the three ICMRS-sponsored journals: Bone Research, Mechanobiology in Medicine, and Journal of Orthopedic Translation.
The meeting achieved great success with over 326 attendees, including ICMRS members and non-member guests worldwide.
(By Dr. Jiahui Huang)
