UConn’s Dr. Marja M. Hurley, a pioneering physician-scientist renowned for her over three decades of NIH-funded bone research, has been voted president-elect by the membership of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). She assumes the presidency of the Society in September 2026.

ASBMR is the premier professional, scientific and medical society established to promote excellence in bone and mineral research and to facilitate the translation of that research into clinical practice. Today the ASBMR has a membership of over 3,000 physicians, basic research scientists, and clinical investigators from over fifty countries.

“I am deeply honored to have been chosen to serve as president-elect of ASBMR, a society founded by pioneers in bone research including UConn Board of Trustees Professor Lawrence G. Raisz who served as the second president of ASBMR as well as joining my esteemed colleagues Professor Barbara Kream and Professor Ernesto Canalis who also served as ASBMR presidents,” shared Hurley.

Hurley serves UConn as its UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and previously served UConn Health as interim senior associate dean for Academic Affairs and Education with fiscal and oversight responsibilities for graduate medical education, undergraduate medical education and graduate programs in biomedical sciences. She is also associate dean and founding director of the Aetna Health Professions Partnership Initiative and chair of the Department of Health Career Opportunity Programs and professor of medicine and orthopedics at UConn School of Medicine. Plus, she is founder and chair of UConn’s AAMC Group on Women in Medicine and Science (GWIMS) Steering Committee and its national liaison to the AAMC Group on Women in Medicine and Science.

“The ASBMR has been my scientific home for over three decades,” says Hurley heartwarmingly as she attended her first ASBMR meeting during her endocrine fellowship training. “The experience was enlightening and career choice reinforcing. Since that meeting, I have actively participated and have continued to contribute to the Society in various capacities. I am deeply honored to be selected as ASBMR’s president-elect.”

Since 2018 Hurley has been an elected fellow of ASBMR. She served as a member of the ASBMR Council, served in several other leadership roles, and was the recipient of its prestigious Lawrence G Raisz Esteemed Award for her preclinical translational research.

Impressively, Hurley has been NIH funded since 1989 and has published well over 200 peer-reviewed studies. She is internationally recognized for her expertise on the role of fibroblast growth factor-2 in skeletal biology and her basic research laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of osteoarthritis, osteoporosis fracture repair and the role of FGF2 in bone, cartilage and phosphate homeostasis.

Most recently, her bone research is exploring with large NIH grant funding new advances in scientific knowledge about sickle cell disease and its related bone loss to develop a useful therapy to prevent bone loss in sickle cell patients in the very near future to curb the pain suffered by sickle cell patients and enhance their overall musculoskeletal health.

Hurley is looking forward to being president-elect and beginning her ASBMR leadership role as president in 2026.

“These are challenging times for the scientific community and professional sciences,” says Hurley. “It is imperative for ASBMR to continue, and expand, and train its members, patients, and policy makers in advocacy at the grassroots and national levels to increase awareness and funding for musculoskeletal disorders. My vision is for the ASBMR to continue to grow its membership world-wide as the professional and scientific home for trainees and investigators at every stage and to forge further engagement of clinicians delivering musculoskeletal care.”

Also, at UConn Health for over two decades she has mentored Connecticut’s youth to create a pipeline of the next generation of doctors and scientists from all socio-economic backgrounds in her role as founding director and associate dean for the Health Career Opportunity Programs at UConn Health.

Hurley joined the UConn faculty in 1986. She completed her undergraduate and medical degrees, internal medicine residency and endocrinology fellowship trainings all at UConn.
The University has named her one of its most outstanding women of its first 100 years.

She is the recipient of many awards for her accomplishments and contributions as a leader, physician, scientist, educator, administrator, and for her community efforts. She is often an invited speaker at national meetings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Association of American Medical Colleges, the American Dental Education Association, the Kellogg and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations, and many more. Plus, Hurley serves as a member of NIH/NIDCR Board of Scientific Counselors.