Reading Time: 7 minutes Hi, I’m Heather, a PhD student from King’s College London, and a Communications Ambassador for the 34th International Symposium on ALS/MND which was held in Basel last December. Over 1,300 attendees from around the world gathered to connect with researchers and people affected by MND and engage with the latest research presented in the platform presentation and poster sessions. In this blog post, I will be sharing several of my personal highlights of the symposium, which cover how differences in our genetic code can be explored to understand their effects on MND risk and progression.

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Reading Time: 4 minutes In our brains, specific areas control the movement of different body parts (see image below). As we know, MND is a complex disease with a lot of variation between individuals who are affected. For example, symptoms may start in different body parts for different individuals. Understanding why this happens may help us predict the disease onset site or progression across the body in the future.

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Reading Time: 5 minutes Hi, my name is Avril Mc Tague. I am undertaking a Ph.D. at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland as part of the Multidisciplinary Innovation and Research Advancing Neurological care in a Digital Age (MIRANDA) doctoral award programme. This is funded by the Health Research Board in Ireland. I was one of five symposium communication ambassadors at last year’s international symposium.

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A graphic showing some of the photos of the ALS/FTD Plenary Speakers

Reading Time: 5 minutes Every year, the team works hard to build on the previous year’s success. This year we are excited to include a series of three ALS-FTD joint sessions, in collaboration with the International Society for Frontotemporal Dementias, in the programme. To give you a teaser of what is to come, we are taking a closer look at the plenary speakers in the ALS-FTD sessions at the Symposium. In this blog, we explore the topics they will be presenting and find out a little more about the speakers.

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A graphic showing some of the photos of ALS/FTD Plenary Speakers

Reading Time: 5 minutes Every year, the team works hard to build on the previous year’s success. This year we are excited to include a series of three ALS-FTD joint sessions, in collaboration with the International Society for Frontotemporal Dementias, in the programme.

Some people with ALS, the most common form of MND, also develop a form of dementia known as frontotemporal dementia (FTD). FTD is a group of disorders where the nerve cells in two sets of lobes (frontal and temporal) in the brain are damaged. In a similar way to how motor neurones break down in MND and cause loss of function in muscles, the damage to the nerve cells in FTD causes the connections between parts of the brain to break down. As more cells become damaged and die this can lead to symptoms such as problems with memory, thinking or language, changes in mood, emotions and behaviour.

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