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11th International Conference draws record presentations and attendance
The 11th International Conference on Myasthenia Gravis and Related Disorders was held May 13-16, 2007 at the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Presented jointly by the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, Inc., the New York Academy of Sciences, and Blackwell Futura Media Services, the conference was organized and co-chaired by MGFA Medical/Scientific Advisory Board members Richard J. Barohn, MD (Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Missouri, Kansas City) and Henry J. Kaminski, MD (Chair of the Department of Neurology at the St. Louis University Medical Center).
Research investigators and professors from Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States presented the latest advances in:
- Structure and function of the neuromuscular junction (NMJ)
- Structure and function of the acetylcholine receptor (AchR)
- Muscle specific kinase (MusK) and MG
- Congenital myasthenic syndromes (CMS)
- Immunology of autoimmune disorders involving neuronal and glial channel proteins
- Autoimmune pathogenesis in MG: current concepts
- Clinical trials
- Treatments on the horizon for MG
- Recent developments
- Thymectomy for MG
With more than 225 participants from twenty-five countries, this was the most successful gathering of this prestigious conference since its inception in Philadelphia in 1954.
Attendees included junior and senior university faculty members from interest areas such as biochemistry, structural biology, cellular and molecular neuroscience, pharmacology, immunology, and clinical neurology.
Over the intense three-day meeting (which included more than 50 speakers and session chairs and 100 poster displays), nearly all attendees participated in intense discussions of the NMJ and treatment of autoimmune diseases.
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