AIM
The activities carried out by the Association in the fourth trimester 2022 mainly focused on the organization of the national congress.
The 22nd National Congress of the Italian Association of Myology took place in Matera (South Italy) from 19 to 22 October 2022, and was a success in terms of attendance, with an overall participation of around 300 people in all four days of the congress.
The scientific program was very active and intensive, with four lectures – two of them held by guests of international renown, such as Prof. Jerry Mendell from the Nationwide Children’s and the Ohio State University (USA) and Prof. Jordi Diaz-Manera from Newcastle (UK) – 5 workshops, 2 special sessions and 5 company symposia. There were also numerous (42) oral communications, while a great success and participation was the discussion of posters (77).
The Congress concluded the works with the assignment of n. 5 prizes to young researchers (Fig. 1). In particular, the following awads have been assigned:
- The “Giovanni Nigro” prize for the best oral communication on muscular dystrophies, kindly offered by the Neapolitan Association Gaetano Torre Centre for Muscular Dystrophy, was awarded to dr. Giulio Gadaleta (University of Turin) for the contribution “Adults with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy ( DMD): old and new challenges in a long-living cohort”;
- The “Parent Project Italia” prize for the best oral communication was awarded to dr. Daniele Sabbatini (University of Padua), for the contribution “Genome-Wide Association Study for identification and characterization of genetic modifiers of Duchenne muscular dystrophy”
- The “AIM” prize for the best oral communication was awarded to Dr. Carmen Campanale, (University of Bari) for the contribution “Functional and pharmacological characterization of a Nav1.4 sodium and a ClC-1 chloride channel mutations segregating with myotonia in an Italian kindred”.
- The “AIM” prize for the best poster was awarded to Dr. Rossella Cima (IRCCS Medea, Bosisio Parini) for the contribution “Twenty years of natural history of Myotonic dystrophy type 1”;
- The “AltroDomani” prize for the best poster was awarded to Andrea Barp (Nemo Clinical Center in Milan) for the contribution: “Body composition and myokines in a cohort of patients with Becker muscular dystrophy”.
The following event “Breathless and moveless – Neuromuscular disorders in intensive care”, held in Udine on 22 October 2023, was also sponsored.
The 23rd Congress of AIM will be held in Padua from 5 to 8 June 2023.
MSM
Due to pandemics, the 14th Meeting of the Mediterranean Society of Myology (MSM) is moved to the 2023. Proposals to organize and host the event are welcome.
WMS
The 27th International Annual Congress of the World Muscle Society took place on 11th-15th October 2022, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in a hybrid manner. The congress venue was the Halifax Convention Centre at 1650 Argyle Street, in the heart of this Atlantic seaport. Figure 2 shows a synthesis of the Congress activities.
During the Congress there was the election of the new Scientific Board. Six members stepped down: Carsten Bönnemann, Nathalie Goemans, Carmen Navarro, Anders Oldfors, Haluk Topaloğlu, Peter Van den Bergh and six new members joined: Lindsay Alfano, Alan Beggs, Jordi Diaz-Manera, Teresinha Evangelista, Gina Ravenscroft, Benedikt Schoser. This was the first in-person congress since the three current Executive Officers were elected, and they all put themselves forward to stand again and were accepted: Volker Straub (President), Laurent Servais (Secretary), Gisèle Bonne (Treasurer).
The future WMS Congresses will be in Charleston, South Carolina (2023); Prague, Czech Republic (2024); Vienna, Austria (2025) and Hiroshima, Japan (2026).
For further information visit the Society website https://worldmusclesociety.org
