SAVE THE DATE!!!
11th BMAS Webinar Series
16 February 2026 at 5pm CET/11amEST
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED – CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Brief synopsis of webinar: Coming Soon!
Speaker Bio: Coming Soon!
10th BMAS Webinar Series
24 November 2026, 5pm CET/11amEST
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
OSTEOPOROSIS AND BONE MARROW ADIPOSE TISSUE
Dr. Julien Paccou MD,PhD, Professor of Rheumatology at Lille University Hospital, Lille France.
Brief synopsis of webinar:This webinar will explore the latest insights into bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) and its impact on bone health. We will examine how BMAT varies with age, sex, and skeletal sites, and highlight recent advances in noninvasive imaging techniques for quantifying BMAT in humans. The session will also discuss the role of BMAT in osteoporosis and review current interventions that influence its behavior.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recording
Speaker Bio: Julien Paccou MD,PhD received his MD from Lille University Hospital in 2008. He has obtained his PhD thesis in 2013 on Vascular Calcification in Rheumatoid Arthritis in the INSERM U1088 laboratory at Amiens University Hospital, France. Then, he completed his postdoctoral fellowship in 2014 at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK under the supervision of Professor Cyrus Cooper. His previous research has examined Vascular Calcification in Rheumatoid Arthritis. In a couple of review papers recently published, Dr Paccou and colleagues describe the role of the bone marrow adiposity in skeletal health. One of his current projects is to collaborate with researchers in Public Health in order to continue to work on health database such as the SNDS (French National Health Database) and the UK Biobank. He has a special interest on bone health in adults with obesity before and after interventions to promote weight loss, such as calorie restriction, metabolic and bariatric surgery, and GLP-1 receptor agonists. Dr. Paccou is a recipient of the best clinical Bone Marrow Adiposity Society (BMAS) scientist award in 2025.
9th BMAS Webinar Series
10 November 2025
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
INSIGHTS FROM RECENT LARGE-SCALE ANALYSES OF BONE MARROW ADIPOSITY IN THE UK BIOBANK 
Dr. William Cawthorn PhD, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Centre for Cardiovascular Science, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Brief synopsis of webinar: Several recent, independent studies have used deep learning to quantify bone marrow adiposity (BMA) from UK Biobank MRI data, yielding BMA measurements in tens of thousands of people. These studies have identified strong genetic and phenotypic associations linking BMA to osteoporosis, fracture, cardiometabolic disease, and other conditions, with causal evidence for BMAT’s role in osteoporosis. Together, these breakthroughs establish BMAT as a
clinically relevant and genetically tractable target for future mechanistic and therapeutic research, opening new possibilities to leverage BMAT as a biomarker and drug target to improve human health.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recording
Speaker Bio: William Cawthorn is a Reader at the University of Edinburgh’s Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research. His work investigates adipose tissue biology, particularly bone marrow adipose tissue, integrating preclinical models, human studies, and UK Biobank data. Using metabolic phenotyping, imaging, and AI, his research links metabolism, immunity, and skeletal health in ageing and disease. He also champions open science as the University’s LERU Open Science Ambassador, co-founder of the Edinburgh Open Research Initiative, and Institutional co-Lead for the UK Reproducibility Network.
PRE-REGISTRATION REQUIRED – CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
Dr. Julien Paccou MD,PhD, Professor of Rheumatology at Lille University Hospital, Lille France.
Brief synopsis of webinar:This webinar will explore the latest insights into bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) and its impact on bone health. We will examine how BMAT varies with age, sex, and skeletal sites, and highlight recent advances in noninvasive imaging techniques for quantifying BMAT in humans. The session will also discuss the role of BMAT in osteoporosis and review current interventions that influence its behavior.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recording
Speaker Bio: Julien Paccou MD,PhD received his MD from Lille University Hospital in 2008. He has obtained his PhD thesis in 2013 on Vascular Calcification in Rheumatoid Arthritis in the INSERM U1088 laboratory at Amiens University Hospital, France. Then, he completed his postdoctoral fellowship in 2014 at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, University of Southampton, UK under the supervision of Professor Cyrus Cooper. His previous research has examined Vascular Calcification in Rheumatoid Arthritis. In a couple of review papers recently published, Dr Paccou and colleagues describe the role of the bone marrow adiposity in skeletal health. One of his current projects is to collaborate with researchers in Public Health in order to continue to work on health database such as the SNDS (French National Health Database) and the UK Biobank. He has a special interest on bone health in adults with obesity before and after interventions to promote weight loss, such as calorie restriction, metabolic and bariatric surgery, and GLP-1 receptor agonists. Dr. Paccou is a recipient of the best clinical Bone Marrow Adiposity Society (BMAS) scientist award in 2025.
8th BMAS Webinar
29 September 2025
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
FAT AND FATE: HOW BONE 
MARROW ADIPOCYTES SHAPE CANCER PROGRESSION
Dr. Camille Attané PhD, Research Associate in Microenvironment, Cancer and Adipocytes with the Muller Lab at the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology in Toulouse (France).
Brief synopsis of webinar: Our laboratory previously demonstrated that peritumoral adipocytes promote tumor progression by fueling cancer cells with fatty acids (FAs) released through the activation of lipolysis pathways in these adipocytes (Attané et al., Trends in Cancer, 2020). However, whether similar metabolic crosstalk exists with bone marrow adipocytes (BMAds) remains less well understood. Notably, primary human BMAds exhibit a distinct lipid metabolism — characterized by the absence of classical lipolysis — which may profoundly influence their interactions with cancer cells. In this presentation, I will review current knowledge on the role of BMAds in cancer progression, drawing from in vivo studies in rodent models, analyses of bone marrow biopsies from patients with hematological malignancies, and in vitro co-culture experiments. I will also present recent findings from our laboratory showing how BMAds release fatty acids that are transferred to prostate cancer cells, enhancing their migratory and invasive capacities (Hernandez et al., in preparation).
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recording
Speaker Bio: Dr. Attané is a Research Associate at the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology in Toulouse (France) in Catherine Muller’s lab (Microenvironment, Cancer and Adipocytes) with expertise in metabolism, adipocyte biology and cancer. Current research focuses on studying the role and the nature of the metabolic crosstalk between prostate cancer cells and bone marrow adipocytes in bone metastasis outgrowth. Previous work highlighted the specific metabolism of human bone marrow adipocytes from yellow bone marrow published in Cell Reports as well as a STAR protocol for the isolation of these adipocytes. Dr. Attané is a member of the biobanking working group and serves on the the scientific board of the International Bone Marrow Adiposity Society.
7th BMAS Webinar Series - 30 June 2025
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
NOVEL INSIGHTS INTO NUTRITIONAL REGULATION OF MARROW ADIPOSE
TISSUE
Dr. Clifford J. Rosen MD, Director of Clinical and Translational Research and Senior Scientist at Maine Medical Center’s Research Institute, and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.
Dr. Rosen will describe the forms of nutritional intervention that affect the bone marrow, and discuss mechanistic aspects of both diet-induced obesity and calorie restriction as it relates to BMAT. He will also describe mitigation strategies and how interventions can prevent BMAT expansion.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recording
Speaker Bio: Dr. Rosen currently oversees the Rosen Musculoskeletal Laboratory at the Main Health Institute for Research and is a board certified endocrinologist. Dr. Rosen has thirty years of continuous NIH funding, first at The Jackson Laboratory and subsequently at MHIR. The central theme of the laboratory relates to stem cell biology and the interaction of bone and fat at the molecular level. He is the past president of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research and previous council member of the National Advisory Committee on Aging (NIA). He also served a four-year term on the NIAMS council and the Endocrine Society. He has been an Associate Editor at New England Journal of Medicine for more than 9 years, and a Senior Editor at eLife. Dr. Rosen has published 635 peer-reviewed publications in Journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, Cell Metabolism, PNAS, New England Journal, Journal of Clinical Investigation and Lancet. He currently serves as chair of the Steering Committee for CALERIE, an R33 from NIA evaluating the impact of calorie restriction in adults. He previously served as co-chair for the NIA Task Force on Minority Aging Research.
6th BMAS Webinar Series - 14 April 2025
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
Neural Regulation of Bone Marrow Adipose Tissue
Dr. Erica Scheller DDS, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Executive Director of the WashU Center of Regenerative Medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis, MO, USA.
Abstract: Bone marrow adipose tissue, or BMAT, makes up ~70% of the adult human skeleton and contains up to 2-weeks of stored energy. Energy partitioning and utilization is generally controlled by the nervous and endocrine systems, facilitating the function of organs and cells throughout the body. In this seminar, we will discuss the regulation of both regulated and constitutive BMAT within the context of all adipose tissues, and how this regulatory system evolves in states such as end stage starvation and cachexia.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recording
Speaker Bio: Dr. Erica Scheller is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis. She is also the current Executive Director of the WashU Center of Regenerative Medicine and a Past President of the International Society of Bone Morphometry (ISBM). The Scheller Lab synthesizes concepts from cell biology, physiology, and bioengineering to study the relationships between the nervous system and the skeleton. We have a directed interest in understanding how neural signals contribute to skeletal and metabolic homeostasis, and how perturbations to this system contribute to bone loss, fracture risk and impaired healing in diseases such as diabetes and cachexia. As part of this, we have a longstanding commitment to the study of bone marrow adipose physiology and it’s role within the body.
Dr. Scheller obtained her combined DDS/PhD degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she graduated in 2011. She completed her post-doctoral training also at the University of Michigan, under the tutorship of Dr. Ormond McDougald, focusing on neuroendocrine regulation of fat and bone metabolism.
5th BMAS Webinar Series - 11 February 2025
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
The Regulatory Effect of Bone Marrow Adiposity on the Hallmarks of Aging
Dr. Gustavo Duque, MD, Ph.D., FRACP, FGSA, Full Professor, Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Chair in Geriatric Medicine, Director – RUISSS McGill Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health of Seniors/ Simone & Edouard Shouela (CEDurable), and Principal Investigator at the Bone, Muscle & Geroscience Group of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).
Synopsis of Webinar: This seminar explores the emerging field of bone marrow adipose tissue (BMAT) and its multifaceted influence on the hallmarks of aging. Recent studies reveal the dynamic role of BMAT as an endocrine organ, influencing systemic metabolism, bone health, and age-related diseases. The presentation will begin with an overview of the hallmarks of aging, including cellular senescence, genomic instability, loss of proteostasis, and altered intercellular communication. By linking marrow fat dynamics to aging pathways, the seminar underscores the importance of BMAT as a modifiable factor in age-related health decline. It will conclude by outlining future directions in research, emphasizing the need for a deeper understanding of BMAT’s systemic effects to unlock novel interventions from a geroscience approach.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recording
Speaker Bio: Dr. Gustavo Duque, is a geriatrician and biomedical scientist with a research interest in the mechanisms, potential therapies, and biomarkers for age-related bone loss, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, osteosarcopenia, and frailty in older persons. He is also studying the effect of vitamin D, exercise, protein and nutraceuticals on bone and muscle mass. He trained in Internal Medicine at Javeriana University (Colombia) and Geriatric Medicine at McGill University (Canada), where he earned his Ph.D. in 2003. In 2007, he joined the University of Sydney as Associate Professor and Head of Geriatric Medicine and Director of the Musculoskeletal Ageing Research Program, becoming Professor in 2012. In 2022 he assumed the roles of Full Professor, Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Chair in Geriatric Medicine, Director – RUISSS McGill Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health of Seniors/ Simone & Edouard Shouela (CEDurable), and Principal Investigator at the Bone, Muscle & Geroscience Group of the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gerontology:Biological Sciences, one of the official journals of the Gerontological Society of America. He is also the Chair of the recently created Canadian Translational Geroscience Network.
4th BMAS Webinar Series - Featuring Two Speakers!
Hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
Bone Marrow Adipose Tissue and Hematopoeitic Stem Cells
Dr. Adriana Roque, MD, is a hematologist in the Hematology and Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Unit at the University Hospital of Coimbra (Portugal) and an adjunct lecturer at the Institute of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra (Portugal). She is currently working on her PhD, focusing on the relationship between bone marrow adipose tissue and monoclonal gammopathies, under the supervision of Professor Raquel Seiça, MD, PhD and Professor Catarina Geraldes, MD, PhD (University of Coimbra). She is a member of the board of the Multiple Myeloma Group within the Portuguese Society of Hematology.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recordings
Bone Marrow Adipocyte Differentiation Regulates Hematipoeitic Support
Olaia Naveiras, M.D., Ph.D, is a an academic hematologist and Associate Professor at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, where she runs the Laboratory of Regenerative Hematopoiesis, and a consultant hematologist at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV), supervising the adult bone marrow failure and aplasia clinic. She studied Medicine at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain, and pursued her Master-level studies in Immunology at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and in Harvard Medical School, where she then did her PhD within Prof. George Q Daley’s laboratory. She has been Vice-President and President of the International Bone Marrow Adiposity Society (BMAS) from 2017-2022, Vice-President of the Swiss Stem Cell Network (SSCN) and is a member of the scientific committee of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).
3rd BMAS Webinar Series - 9 September 2024
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
Clinical Implications of Bone Marrow Adipose Tissue on Skeletal Health
Dr. Annegreet Vlug MD, PhD, internist-endocrinologist in the Jan van Goyen Medical Center and OLVG Hospital in Amsterdam and senior researcher in the Center for Bone Quality in Leiden.
Synopsis of Webinar: Recent preclinical studies have shown that bone marrow adipose tissue and bone metabolism are connected in multiple ways, first of all through the skeletal stem cell and lineage allocation, but also by lipolysis and energy metabolism and finally by secretion of mediators in paracrine and endocrine ways. At the same time, more and more clinical studies in humans show that the interpretation of the relation between bone marrow adiposity and bone depends on the circumstances as determined by age, sex, skeletal site, body composition, underlying disease and type of intervention. Highlights of the recent insights will be discussed with a focus on osteoporosis and fracture risk and weight loss with anorexia nervosa and bariatric surgery and put into the clinical context to determine the future perspective for bone marrow adiposity as a diagnostic tool and therapeutic target to optimize skeletal health.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recordings
Speaker Bio:Annegreet Vlug practices as an internist-endocrinologist in the Jan van Goyen Medical Center and OLVG Hospital in Amsterdam with a focus on osteoporosis and bone and calcium disorders. After training in Internal Medicine in Leiden and Amsterdam, she did a clinical fellowship at the Bone Center of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. She received her PhD on the neuroendocrine regulation of human bone metabolism in 2015 from the University of Amsterdam and continued her research during a postdoc on human bone marrow adiposity in the lab of Clifford Rosen in Maine, USA. Currently she is a senior researcher in the Center for Bone Quality in Leiden continuing her research
on human bone marrow adiposity, muscle and bone in addition to clinical studies on osteoporosis and menopause. She was elected president of the Dutch Society for Calcium and Bone metabolism in 2023 and serves on multiple other national and international committees from the European Calcified Tissue Society, the European Society for Endocrinology, and the International Bone Marrow Adiposity Society among others and represents the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research as a global ambassador.
2nd BMAS Webinar Series - 10 June 2024
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
BMAT and MSCs: The role of aging and metabolic dysfunction in lineage determination of bone resident mesenchymal stromal cells.
Dr. Tim J. Schulz, PhD, Department of Adipocyte Development and Nutrition at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Germany.
Synopsis of Webinar: Aging and obesity exacerbate the onset and progression of metabolic complications of the musculoskeletal system, including the development of insulin resistance and the ectopic accumulation of adipocytes in atypical anatomical sites, such as the marrow cavities of long bones and within skeletal muscle. These processes are thought to contribute to the impairment of normal tissue maintenance and also to inhibit regenerative tissue repair after injury. Tissue-resident mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), sometimes also referred to as mesenchymal stem cells, assume important roles in regeneration: they may act as regulatory cells that contribute pro-regenerative signals to the local niche. Depending on host tissue and physiological conditions, they may also comprise stem/progenitor cell subsets which pursue osteo-chondrogenic, fibrogenic or adipogenic differentiation trajectories. The metabolic signals that result in the formation and maintenance of these functionally distinct subsets remain largely unknown. During aging and metabolic disease, the functional heterogeneity of MSCs is disrupted. As a result, regenerative processes of myogenic repair of skeletal muscle, bone tissue maintenance and hematopoiesis are negatively affected. In this seminar, we will discuss potential mechanisms that regulate the development of distinct MSC subsets involved in regeneration. For instance, we were able to show that mesenchymal cells of the bone marrow cavity are functionally diverse and give rise to ectopic fat but may at the same time contribute to the regulation of regenerative processes in the bone marrow niche. These findings suggest that age-dependent changes of the cellular heterogeneity of the mesenchymal lineages may negatively affect tissue regeneration and health in aged individuals.
Speaker Bio: Tim J. Schulz is head of the Department of Adipocyte Development and Nutrition at the German Institute of Human Nutrition in Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Germany. He received his doctorate in biochemistry and nutritional sciences from the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany and subsequently completed his post-doctoral training on BMPs and brown adipose tissue in the laboratory of Dr. Yu-Hua Tseng at Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, in Boston, USA. His research group is interested in the role of aging in degenerative decline, MSC functions, and adipocyte formation within the tissues of the musculoskeletal system.
Inaugural BMAS Webinar Series - 14 April 2025
hosted by the BMAS Scientific Board.
Bone Marrow Adipose Tissue and Cancer
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Aline Bozec, professor in experimental immune therapy at the Medizinische Klinik 3-Rheumatologie und Immunologie (Department of Rheumatology and Immunology) at the University Hospital Erlangen (Germany).
Syopsis of Webinar: In this webinar we will discuss the impact of being overweight or obese on the development and progression of tumors in the bones. We will show you how mice exposed to a short-term diet high in saturated fat changed the composition of cells in the bone, making it more favorable for tumor growth. We explored a chemical called bisphenol-A-diglycidylether (BADGE), which inhibits the development of fat cells. When mice were treated with BADGE, it significantly reduced tumor growth in the bones. We found a unique group of active macrophages (BM MMe) in the bones of HFD-fed mice, similar to those found in WAT. Metabolomic analysis confirmed the presence of compounds promoting macrophage activation. These bone macrophages might promote tumors. Our analysis also suggested a connection between these bone macrophages and neutrophils. In summary, this study reveals a connection between bone marrow adipocyte, active macrophages, neutrophils, and a diet high in saturated fat, shedding light on the local effects of such a diet.
CLICK HERE to view the webinar recording
Speaker Bio: Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Aline Bozec is affiliated with the Medizinische Klinik 3-Rheumatologie und Immunologie (Department of Rheumatology and Immunology) at the University Hospital Erlangen (Germany) as full professor in experimental immune therapy. Her research group has a particular focus on the interplay between
metabolism, bone homeostasis, and inflammation. The Bozec Laboratory’s primary research objective is to elucidate the cellular and molecular mechanisms that alter the bone marrow microenvironment under the influence of various disease conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, and cancer metastasis. By employing in vitro and in vivo gain- and loss-of-function murine models, the laboratory has uncovered crucial roles for the immune system in regulating the differentiation of bone cell types, including osteoclasts and osteoblasts.