The
Comparative Cartilage & Bone Biology (CCBB) conference took place at the Observatoire Océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer, France, June 10-13, 2025. CCBB is a merging of two previous successful conferences: ‘Interdisciplinary Approaches in Fish Skeletal Biology’ (IAFSB: 6 editions since 2009) and ‘Comparative Cartilage Biology’ (CCB: 2019). CCBB united researchers from diverse fields of skeletal research, with particular focus on fundamental aspects of cartilage and bone biology, knowledge crucial for biomedicine, biomimetics or other applications.
Rather than pack the schedule too tightly, they arranged ample discussion time, not only after each talk, but also in round-table discussions ending mornings and afternoons. These were particularly lively, and participants reported that these were one of the most rewarding aspects of the meeting, with free flow interactions not as possible in a digital format. In addition, shared lunches and social events — an aquarium wine-tasting, apéritif with the mayor at the town hall and a conference dinner — greatly enhanced scientific exchange among participants, engendering a jovial and interactive community. The CCBB Art-in-Science exhibition, ‘Skeletons under the Scope’, showcased 20 large-format scientific images installed on the seaside promenade, also engaging the public in the scientific discourse. 
CCBB had 74 attendees from 17 countries and 4 continents, an even gender balance (49%:51% female:male), and equal numbers of established and early-career researchers (23 students, 15 early career and 36 later career), including disciplines as varied as paleontology, anatomy, biomaterials, biomimetics, cell biology, evodevo, functional morphology and molecular genetics. Each day showcased a keynote speech — on bone cells (Lynda Bonewald), cartilage evolution (John Maisey), applications in human medicine (David Karasik), and emerging technologies (Imke Fiedler)— followed by oral presentations related to the keynote topic. The conference had both poster and oral presentations; submitted abstracts were of such high quality that all who wished to give an oral presentation were accepted as such (47 in total).
Conference organiser Mason Dean commented: “The
Scientific Meeting Grant from The Company of Biologists was instrumental to the conference’s success; we cannot thank the Company enough. With such funding, we were able to offer the meeting with very low registration costs, greatly facilitating attendance by younger researchers. We surveyed participants to improve the meeting for future iterations; initial feedback was universally positive, particularly regarding meeting size, range of topics, location and CCBB’s focus on building interaction. The openness and freedom for innovative thinking in the roundtable discussions was particularly stimulatory and we observed several nascent collaborations, for example, to share protocols and samples, and collaboratively write ‘state-of-the-field’ manuscripts. Thank you again to The Company of Biologists for helping make CCBB possible!”
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