Clinical course of MELAS. Can we predict it?, R. Mc Farland

10th Italian Meeting on Mitochondrial Diseases, 9-10 October 2020
Clinical course of MELAS. Can we predict it?, R. Mc Farland, Wellcome Trust Centre for Mitochondrial Research

The 10th Italian Meeting on Mitochondrial Diseases organised by Mitocon, the Italian mitochondrial patient association (www.mitocon.it), brought together more than 300 doctors, researchers and patients from more than 30 countries and has been a unique opportunity to discuss and update on current understandings of mitochondrial diseases and pathways towards diagnosis and treatment.
Mitochondrial diseases are very complex disorders little known by the scientific community itself until a few years ago. In recent years, giant steps have been taken in the study of the basic mechanisms involved in these diseases and we have finally moved from the diagnosis to the study of possible treatments.
Since its first edition in 2010, the annual Italian Meeting on Mitochondrial Diseases has contributed to this process by gathering the entire community of Italian doctors and researchers around the association of patients and helping to strengthen international partnerships and collaborations, making the whole community grow together and contributing to sharing knowledge and research progress.
The program of this 10th edition of the meeting, drawn up in collaboration with Mitocon's Scientific Committee, has been designed to inspire the integration of technology and innovation into medical practice. In addition to the natural history of mitochondrial diseases and pre-clinical models, the main themes have been the "high tech" involvement in mitochondrial medicine, robotics and gene therapy.
A very important session has been dedicated to the research of therapies, with a specific focus on an update on current clinical trials. It has been a unique opportunity for discussion between clinicians and industry and a real possibility for new collaborations.
The meeting has been dedicated to one of the fathers of mitochondrial medicine, Prof. Salvatore Di Mauro, for decades leading one of the first and main research groups on mitochondria at Columbia University in NY (USA), which has attracted and built entire generations of mitochondriologists in Italy and worldwide. A special lecture has been dedicated to him for his 80 years.
If you wish to know more about Mitocon, write at [email protected], or call us at +39 (0)6 66991333.