At the end of January, the lab of Prof Adrian Isaacs hosted the 2nd European C9orf72 workshop at UCL Queen Square Institute for Neurology in London. The focus of the meeting was to present novel unpublished data in order to increase collaboration and research impact across Europe.
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are clinically distinct neurodegenerative diseases but share a common genetic mutation that drives both diseases in many instances – an expansion of a six-letter DNA sequence within the C9orf72 gene (intronic GGGGCC repeat expansion). A 2-day workshop taking place 30-31 January 2020, most of the field was represented with 80 participants from 43 different labs attending, including the UKDRI centres at Edinburgh, King's and UCL. The event was particularly international with delegates from all reaches of Europe including Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Finland, Italy, Slovenia and Holland.
The collaborative nature of the meeting was well received and the Isaacs' lab look forward to the next workshop in Munich. The workshop received support from the UK DRI, Alzheimer's Research UK and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
If you interested in this field of research and would like to be involved in future events, please contact Prof Isaacs, UK DRI at UCL.
Article published: 26 February 2020
