On Friday, December 5, we had the pleasure of welcoming many of you at the Cotrel Foundation’s “Rencontres 2025”, a special event bringing together researchers, donors, and families to discuss advances in idiopathic scoliosis, which we always take great pleasure in organizing.
This year’s event began with a moving and eagerly awaited tribute to Professor Jean Dubousset, presented by Dr. Marie-Hélène Plais and Prof. Wafa Skalli.
The session also marked the creation of the Jean Félix Dubousset Medal, presented by Philippe Cotrel and François Dubousset in a beautiful example of intergenerational transmission.
A dedicated tab will be available on our website, detailing the nomination process and the three founding values of this award: generosity, openness, and humility.
For this first edition, it was presented by Dr. Nicolas Plais to Professor René Castelein, who was moved and surprised by this honor.
Participants were then given an overview of the latest research advances:
Prof. René Castelein, with an overview of idiopathic scoliosis;
Dr. Nicolas Plais, with a focus on projects supported by the Foundation.
The 2025 winners were announced by Dr. Stéphane Plais (their pages are currently being prepared).
Dr. Anne Kavounoudias, from the Center for Research in Psychology and Neuroscience, Marseille, France, for her project “Alteration of proprioception in adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis: characterization and search for cerebral correlates in multimodal neuroimaging.”
Dr. Simona Neri, from the Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna, Italy, for her project “Epigenomic profiling of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis: revealing local gene expression regulation through genome-wide DNA methylation analysis.”
Prof. Adam Yiu Chung Lau, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, China, winner of the Cotrel-SRS Foundation joint grant for his project “Non-radiographic assessment of skeletal maturity and bone health in cases of spinal deformity in children,” was also introduced to the audience.
