NMD4C: The Neuromuscular Disease Network for Canada

Thank you to our investigators who attended the 2024 Annual NMD4C Meeting on September 27th in Calgary!

Our meeting program consisted of presentations from pillar and task leads which highlighted their groups’ achievements and progress made to date. The project updates were inspiring to hear, and we are excited to see how our collective efforts will continue to advance our network goals over the coming year. The contributions from the attendees to the discussions and planning have set a strong foundation for the next steps for the year ahead, and we look forward to continuing this momentum. A full meeting summary will be made available to network investigators in the coming weeks.

Additional highlights from our meeting included:

• We supported 16 clinical trainees to attend our meeting and the Western Canadian Neuromuscular Conference (WCNMC), present introductory flash talks, attend networking sessions, and participate in case presentations and a research symposium.
• We heard from Dr Jean-Philippe Leduc-Gaudet, recipient of the 2024 NMD4C Publication of the Year, who provided a research update from his award-winning Nature publication “MYTHO is a novel regulator of skeletal muscle autophagy and integrity”.
• Presentations from investigator Dr Reshma Amin on her project to establish a framework for real-world evidence for Canadian neuromuscular diseases which recently received funding from the CIHR, and presentations from our collaborators, Canadian Rare Disease Network and RareKids-CAN. We look forward to exploring how we can support each other’s work moving forwards!

Finally, we would like to thank the organizing team of the WCNMC, which took place directly after our annual meeting. The WCNMC conference provided an excellent forum for the neuromuscular community to gather and learn about clinical practice and research updates, and network with colleagues and we are looking forward to attending again in 2026!