Azrieli Faculty of Medicine Hosts Multidisciplinary International Workshop

In early December 2020, the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine conducted an international workshop entitled Mathematics of the MusculoSkeleton: Post-Genome Analysis for Bone Biology.

The workshop included online presentations, discussions and innovative approaches, opportunities, and challenges addressed by Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and deep machine learning from experts in the field of musculoskeletal (MSK) disease, including osteoporosis, and sarcopenia.

The workshop brought together mathematicians, statisticians, and Big Data experts with clinically oriented researchers and skeletal biologists to discuss foundations and applications of experimental models in the MSK health and diseases. It was organized in order to provide a blueprint for MSK research with an aim of translating discoveries from human studies into new therapies for patients with MSK diseases. 

Among the distinguished speakers were Prof. Fernando Rivadeneira, Netherlands; Prof. Jon Tobias, UK; Prof. Bjorn Busse, Germany; Prof. Ralph Müller, Switzerland; Prof. Gustavo Duque, Australia; Prof. Christoph Winkler, Singapore; and Prof. Ching-Lung Cheung, Hong Kong. Participants from the US included Prof. Matthew Harris, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard University, and Prof. Ron Kwon. Israeli speakers included Prof. Gregory Livshits and Prof. Yankel Gabet from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University; Prof. Yuval Dor, Hebrew University; and Prof. Elazar Zelzer, Weizmann Institute of Science. Trainees, advanced scientists, and students from additional countries, such as Norway and Italy also took part in the workshop.  

The workshop was organized by Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern and Prof. David Karasik. Dr. Gideon Baum (manager of the Frenkel-Morgenstern lab) and Dan Hinenzon (IT manager) assisted in organizing and running the workshop virtually online.