Welcome to your April newsletter from the World Muscle Society

Have you registered for WMS 2025 yet? Registration is now open for our 30th annual Congress in Vienna, Austria. 

We only opened registration last month and we have already received more than 800 registrations. That's more than twice as many as at the same time last year. 

Thank you also to everyone who has submitted an abstract for WMS 2025. We received more than 700 abstracts ahead of the deadline on 10th April. Our abstract reviewers are now looking in detail at every abstract that has been submitted and our Programme Committee will meet next month to select our oral and short oral presenters as well as those abstracts that will be presented as posters at the Congress. 

If helping us make those decisions is something that might be interesting to you, look out over the next couple of months for our appeal for new Programme Committee members. Each member of the Committee has a three year term and we have three vacancies coming up. We'll share details of how to apply early in the summer. 

Everyone who attends WMS 2025 can look forward to all the typical highlights of a WMS Congress: the latest scientific content, poster and short oral presentations, interesting case discussions and networking opportunities. For WMS 2025, we are also developing a peer networking session, a reception for first time attendees and regional receptions for delegates from all over the world. 

In this month's newsletter, we're very pleased to be able to bring you an interview we recorded at WMS 2024 in Prague, between Jordi Diaz Manera, Virginia Arechavala Gomeza and Pietro Spitali. In the interview, they discuss their work in neuromuscular disorders as well as the future for the field, particularly in terms of treatments and drug development. I highly recommend taking the time to watch it.

We're also keen to continue sharing information about the work of our committees, so this month we bring you an interview with the Chair of our Equity, Diveristy and Inclusion Committee, Lindsay Alfano. 

Another very important update is the editorial changes at the NMD Journal. After many years at the helm, Editor in Chief, Anders Olfors is standing down, which means there is a recruitment process to choose his successor. I encourage WMS members to consider the role, as NMD is our partner journal.

We've also included our usual features, including our latest publication highlight, upcoming events and a link to our jobs postings. We always welcome your feedback on our newsletters, so if there's something you'd like us to cover, please get in touch.