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Welcome to your January Newsletter from the World Muscle Society

I am very pleased to wish you a very happy new year on behalf of the World Muscle Society. 

2025 will be a very exciting year for the WMS. On 4th June this year, we celebrate our 30th anniversary. And when we meet in Vienna, Austria in October, it will be for our 30th annual, international Congress. 

If you don't already know about the humble origins of the WMS, I recommend you take a few minutes to read our short history on the website. It describes how our founder, Victor Dubowitz, had a vision and used that to convene a small meeting of experts in neuromuscular disorders from around the world. On 4th June, 1995, the World Muscle Society came into being. 

Three decades later, we have more than 800 members, representing countries from all over the world. Each year, we seek to extend the scope of the WMS, to better support our members and our specialism. 


 

As well as being our anniversary year, 2025 is also an Executive Board election year. We are currently putting the finishing touches to the process for the election, and are focused on making it as accessible as possible for all our members, whether they are seeking election or simply voting. 

This newsletter includes details of a very special Myology Café, coming up later this week. We will have the opportunity to hear from Nathalie Goemans about her long and fascinating career and her role in DMD research. I urge you to join us on Thursday at 2pm (GMT). 

Volker Straub
WMS President
 
Myology Café 

Join us at the online Myology Café on Thursday 23rd January at 2.00pm (GMT).

This Myology Café will feature a special interview with Nathalie Goemans about her experience in DMD.

Moderated by Jordi Diaz-Manera, we will talk about Nathalie's professional career. Afterwards, in a discussion with Michela Gulgieri and Liesbeth de Waele, we will talk about DMD and how the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of patients with this disease has evolved.

Unlike other Cafés, this session will be recorded and shared on the WMS website and highlighted in social media posts. Register online to join.

 
In Memory of Michel Fardeau

At the end of last year, we had the sad news that Michel Fardeau, a pioneer in our field, had died. 

We received many tributes for Michel, whose work has influenced so many people working in neuromuscular disorders today. 

Our thoughts remain with Michel's family and all who knew him. You can read our tribute to Michel on the WMS website.

 
EVELAM 2024

The 17th Euro-Latin American Summer School of Myology (EVELAM) took place at the Vidawasi Cultural Center in Urubamba, Peru, in the centre of Inca’s Sacred Valley from 26th to 30th November.

The faculty included 25 European and Latin American experts in neuromuscular disorders, who joined 240 attendees to share and exchange their experiences. 

You can read more about EVELAM 2024 on the WMS website.

 
MYO-MRI+
 

The 5th MYO-MRI+ International Imaging in Neuromuscular Disease Conference (MYO-MRI+ 2025 Conference) will take place at Langenbeck-Virchow-Haus in Berlin, Germany from 9th-11th November 2025.

This bi-annual event will bring together leading experts in the field of neuromuscular imaging and will highlight innovations in neuromuscular imaging technologies and their application in neuromuscular disease research and clinical practice. 

Find out more on the MYO-MRI+ website.

 
 
Publication Highlights

Our latest publication highlight is now available to read on the WMS website. In it, Christopher Nelke summarises a recent study titled Antibody internalisation could link clinical phenotypes to subcellular dysfunctions in myositis. 

The original study is by Iago Pinal-Fernandez.

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

 
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 coming weeks 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.

 
Jobs

Don't forget you can always find the latest vacancies in the field of neuromuscular disorders on the WMS website. 

If you are recruiting a vacant post, you can also post the details of your vacancy and we will share the details with WMS audiences. 

You can find all the information you need on the jobs page of the WMS website

 

Published on 22 January 2025.

Related

20 Jan 2025 Highlights of the 17th Euro-Latin-American Summer School of Myology (EVELAM) in Urubamba, Cusco, Peru

06 Jan 2025 Antibody internalisation could link clinical phenotypes to subcellular dysfunctions in myositis

18 Dec 2024 In memory of Michel Fardeau, a giant of the neuromuscular disorders community

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