Sun Valley Workshop on Skeletal Tissue Biology

History of the Sun Valley Workshops

The Sun Valley Workshops on Skeletal Biology grew out of an NIDR-sponsored training program for dental students. It has always emphasized active participation of junior faculty and students (both graduate and postdoctoral), and continues to do so. The Workshop began in 1965 with support from the NIDR (Mineralized Tissues of Interest to Dentistry, 1964-1974) for summer workshops for dental students interested in doing dental-related research. Each summer, several students would visit Salt Lake City to work in Prof. W.S.S. Jee's laboratory to learn some of the newer techniques for studying bone. After a couple of months of work, a small cohort of experts in skeletal biology were invited as visiting faculty to lecture to the students, and then to listen to and critique the work performed during the summer by the students. The students presented their work and discussed its possible implications. The first workshop included six faculty (W.S.S. Jee, Harold Frost, Lent Johnson, Roy Talmage, Leonard Belanger and Richard Greulich) and 9 students (5 summer dental students and 4 graduate students; one of the dental students was W. Eugene Roberts who is now an internationally recognized academic orthodontist; Don Kimmel and Tom Wronski were also graduates of the program). The following year, there were eight faculty (Jee, Frost, Jim Arnold, Robert Heaney, Roy Talmage, Harold Copp, Edgar Tonna and Howard Suzuki) with about 25 participants. Attendance at subsequent workshops increased to a maximum of 196 at the 27th Workshop in 1997, and 115 at the 30th Workshop in 2000.

The success of the workshops stimulated Prof. Jee to generate support from the pharmaceutical industry and the implant and medical device manufacturers once support from the NIH ended. The Workshops were moved to their current venue in Sun Valley, ID in 1969, and have become highly identified with that location.

The Workshops last 4 days and always emphasize interdisciplinary communication. Participants at most of the last 20 Workshops included one or more anatomists, anthropologists, biomechanicians, biochemists, cell biologists, dentists and maxillofacial surgeons, endocrinologists, geneticists, gerontologists, internists, mathematicians, molecular biologists, orthopaedic surgeons, pathologists, pediatricians, pharmacologists, physicists, rheumatologists and sports medicine experts. They included one or more people involved in human, dental and veterinary medicine and research, and a good mix of students and senior investigators, both women and men. All Workshops have had active participation from representatives of the pharmaceutical industry, as well as both clinical and basic science University faculty.

The Workshops are unusual in that discussion time equals or exceeds time allotted for formal presentation. Formal presentations are purposely short (15-30 min), and time is set aside each day to allow informal exchanges among the participants. As part of their registration, each participant receives a Proceedings that includes extended abstracts, addresses of participants and the schedule of sessions. In addition, distribution of ancillary handouts is encouraged.

Program content has changed over the years to reflect changes in methods and interests in skeletal clinical and basic science fields. Early Workshops concentrated heavily on the development and applications of dynamic histomorphometry, the bone effects of hormones, calcium, vitamin D and nutrition and experimental design. Later Workshops focused on hard tissue healing, metabolic bone disease (including osteoporosis and osteoarthritis), the regulation of skeletal physiology, and the roles of biomechanics in skeletal development and disorders.

Historically, these Workshops have had an impact on the study of skeletal physiology and disorders. They formed the genesis of such concepts and techniques as dynamic histomorphometry, quantum concept of bone turnover, the BMU as the functional unit in bone, strain-feedback mechanisms, and cyclic treatments for osteoporosis, to name only a few. Relationships and concepts first presented and critiqued at these Workshops were subsequently incorporated into nearly every discipline that currently works on skeletal problems.

It is widely recognized that the Sun Valley Workshops have had a major impact on scientific thinking in the field of skeletal biology particularly in areas related to histomorphometry, in vivo animal models, and biomechanics. The Workshop:

Has a long and successful history of training of industry and academic scientists in quantitative study of musculoskeletal diseases.
Serves an important function in the field.
Has been successful in promoting interdisciplinary communication.
Has evolved into an important component of the fabric of the musculoskeletal community.
Is a major venue for studying the physiology of animal models used to study metabolic bone disease.

In addition, the techniques developed at the Workshop are now mainstays in laboratories around the world, both in academia and in industry - Nowhere else can a researcher find the depth and breadth of expertise in this area of investigation [i.e. imaging technology and animal models].

The Sun Valley Skeletal Tissue Workshop grew out of an attempt to provide multidisciplinary training to younger scientists. Over the past 3 years, students and fellows have comprised about 15% of the total number of participants, while junior faculty members and investigators have constituted 30-35% of the total participants.

The overall objective of these meetings has been to improve understanding across the many disciplines that study skeletal biology and the prevention/treatment of skeletal disease. This is important for all scientists, but particularly important for younger scientists, who because of the breadth of information available now may feel a need to focus within a small area of skeletal biology.

The Sun Valley Workshop on Skeletal Biology is distinguished from other conferences in several respects:

This is truly a workshop, not simply a forum for the presentation new data. The workshop format is evident from the incorporation of tutorial sessions that involve both junior and senior scientists.
The workshop format is also evident in that only 50% of the session time is devoted to speakers, and 50% is devoted to discussion. Speakers are instructed to provide some background to bring all workshop participants to a basic level of understanding, to provide some new data that is hopefully provocative, and to suggest directions/experiments for the future. The sessions are organized to address the following questions:

What is the problem?
What do we need to know to solve the problem?
What are the appropriate experiments to get this information?

In addition, the session chairs are instructed to develop and distribute relevant questions for discussion prior to the session.

The workshop is organized along the lines of the Gordon Conferences. The workshop involves a small group of junior and senior scientists, usually fewer than 150, which allows for productive discussion and also the opportunity for junior scientists to "rub elbows" with more senior scientists. To provide the latter, sessions are organized in the mornings and evenings only, with afternoons free for informal discussion.

With these ideas in mind, the specific goals for the Sun Valley Workshops on Skeletal Biology are:

To work toward a multidisciplinary basic and clinical synthesis of molecular, tissue and biomechanical processes in bone that help us to understand the pathogenesis of bone disease as well as its prevention and treatment
To apply basic science concepts to clinical problems, and develop a dialogue between basic and clinical investigators
To provide a forum for student training and the opportunity in a small group setting for junior scientists to talk with more senior scientists

The Year 2008 Workshop will be held at Sun Valley, Idaho, from August 3rd to August 6th. Sun Valley is easily accessible by a 2 hour drive from Boise, or can be reached by flying into Hailey, ID, only 15 miles from Sun Valley. Participants typically reduce their costs by sharing rides from Salt Lake City or Boise, and by sharing accommodations. The Sun Valley Resort offers condominiums at a reasonable cost (~$200-250/night depending on size) that can be shared by 3-4 people. Split several ways, accommodation is relatively inexpensive. In addition, the condominiums allow participants to prepare their own meals if they wish, rather than having the additional expense of eating every meal out.

PARTICIPATION OF JUNIOR FACULTY AND STUDENTS

As outlined above, the Sun Valley Skeletal Tissue Workshop grew out of a training program for students. At recent conferences (since 1998), nearly half (44-48%) of the participants have been students, fellows or junior faculty members. This exceeds earlier conferences in which about one-third of participants were students or junior faculty. As many as 10 travel awards averaging $800 each are provided to students and fellows from the Alice L. Jee Memorial Fund, the Orthopaedic Research Society and the National Institutes of Health (NIAMS). The emphasis on student and junior faculty training has continued to develop over the years.

Besides training, a primary focus of the workshop has been on the interaction of younger and more senior investigators. This is accomplished through several means. First, each year, the Workshop sponsors a volleyball game (and provides refreshments) to generate informal interaction between junior and senior scientists. These games have been highly effective in allowing time for informal exchange in a relaxed and nonthreatening atmosphere. Additional informal opportunities for discussion occur at the welcoming and closing receptions and a mid-week banquet. For the latter, a Children's Party (for age 11 and under) is provided to make it easier for young investigators and their spouses to develop relationships with established investigators.

Contrary to some opinion, the Workshop is not a closed meeting, nor is it by invitation only. The only restriction is in the number of participants, because of the venue. If there are more than 150 applications for attendance, the members of the Advisory Committee (i.e., the chairs of the scientific sessions), based on productivity and currency in the field, will decide in a Gordon Conference style who should attend. Graduate students and fellows will be given preference. The Workshop has never turned down a student, fellow or junior investigator, and especially young clinical investigators, who expressed a desire to attend the Workshop.