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Welcome to your December Newsletter from the World Muscle Society

This is our final newsletter of 2024 and I am reflecting on another successful year for the WMS. 

We hosted our biggest Congress ever in Prague in October. We have continued to share news, science, and updates across our network. We have made progress against each of our focus areas of equity, diversity and inclusion, making the WMS more welcoming for early career researchers and clinicians, and sustainability. Most recently, we have appointed sustainability consultants to help us refine how we move forwards in the most effective way. 

This year we also, sadly, said goodbye to one of the pioneers of our field, Andrew Engel. Andrew spent half a century helping us understand neuromuscular disorders and deserves a great deal of credit for many of the advances in the field over the last 50 years. You can find our obituary on the WMS website. The NMD Journal has also featured an extended obituary, which WMS members can access.

 

The coming year will be a very special year for the World Muscle Society. We will be celebrating 30 years of the WMS and our 30th Anniversary Congress, which will take place in Vienna, Austria, in October. 

As both our Society and our Congresses continue to grow, I encourage all our 800+ members to do all you can to participate in our work. From encouraging colleagues to join to becoming a member of one of our committees, there are many ways in which you can help shape the future of both the WMS and the field of neuromuscular disorders. 

I look forward to continuing to work closely with many of you in the new year and wish you the very best for the upcoming festive season.

Volker Straub
WMS President
 
Project Proposals

Our project proposals process lets us use WMS funds to support NMD projects around the world. Each year, we have two deadlines for submissions. 

Our latest funded project was the DMD Education Course at New Giza University in Egypt. You can read a full report on the course from scientific programme director and WMS member, Rasha El Sherif on our website. 

To apply for funding for your project, please visit the WMS website. 
 
January Myology Café

Don't miss our January Myology Café, when we'll have a very special guest. Nathalie Goemans will be joining us to share her perspective on the field of Neuromuscular Disorders. Nathalie will be interviewed by Jordi Diaz-Manera. 

In a change from the usual Myology Café rules, we will be recording this session so we can share Nathalie's insights with our whole audience. Join us on Thursday 23rd January at 2.00pm UK time. You can sign up for the Zoom link on our website. 
 
Take the Guidelines Committee Survey

In order to better understand how the Guidelines Committee can focus its work for the benefit of WMS members, they have created this short survey about whether and how you use clinical guidelines.

We launched this survey at the Congress, but wanted to give members a final opportunity to have their say. Please take five minutes to complete the survey to help inform the future work of the Committee.
 
Take the Communications Survey

Another area in which we're looking for your feedback is in our communications survey. We're keen to know how satisfied you are with your WMS membership and whether we're sharing the right information through the right channels. 

We launched this survey at the Congress, but wanted to give members a final opportunity to have their say. This survey will take just a couple of minutes and help us make our communications better for you.
 
Publication Highlights

Our latest publication highlight is now available to read on the WMS website. In it, Wenhua Zhu summarises a recent study into CCG expansions in the ABCD3 as a cause of oculopharyngodistal myopathy. The original study is by Dr Andrea Cortese at the Department of Neuromuscular Diseases at the Institute of Neurology in London, UK. 

You can read this and our full back catalogue of publication highlights on the WMS website. 
 
Reflecting on WMS 2024

Our 29th annual Congress in Prague was a great success. If you would like to review the images from the Congress, you can do that from your profile page when you login to the WMS website. 

And in case you missed them, we have shared a series of daily highlights videos, showcasing the very best of WMS 2024. You can find these on the WMS website too. 
 
Save the Date for WMS 2025

We're already gearing up for WMS 2025. It will be our 30th annual Congress and we look forward to welcoming you to Vienna from 7th-11th October. 

Registration will open in the new year and the abstract deadline will be 10th April. We will, of course, keep you up to date with all important Congress information through our regular communications. 

The Congress website is up and running and we will be adding to it in the coming weeks.
 

Published on 10 December 2024.

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