Trip to Washington

As reported in the last edition of E-ComMenT, I made the trip to Washington DC to attend the CMT Consortium meeting - a gathering of 120+ scientists from all over the world, all working on CMT.  This was the fourth biannial gathering and an essential way for all these individuals to share ideas, learn from each other and generally expand the knowledge of CMT.  Researchers had come from Britain (all the usual crew from the National Hospital for Neurology), France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, Japan, Korea, Australia and of course, USA and Canada. 

As I feared, I didn't understand much of the lectures - two and half full days of incredibly intense, detailed and technical talks, but the overriding sense that I got from it all is that, whilst there is nothing earth-shattering on the horizon, huge advances are being made into understanding all the mechanisms involved in causing CMT.  Remember, each genetic type - and it's now up to 50 individual types - has a different mechanism within the structure of the nerve, and whilst they know the most about type 1a, because this affects the majority, they are not forgetting the much rarer types.  To get a treatment or cure for each and every one of these types of CMT is going to take a very long time, but it's certainly not for the lack of trying.

One thing that did strike me about this conference is the commitment and dedication to the cause.  Even after the formal meetings, whilst we were in the bar (!!) Mary Reilly and Mike Shy were STILL talking shop - they never stop.  Mary actually said at one point - "the conference is over, lets stop talking about this now..."  She lasted about 10 minutes before they were back on the same topic, and this was at 11.30pm at night!!  That's dedication for you!  If you'd like a taster of the topics that were discussed - you can access a document of the "abstracts" here - don't say I didn't warn you.

I did get a chance to have one day of sightseeing in Washington before the Conference started.  Boy, was it hot!!!!  I had my lunch sitting by the Lincoln Memorial, and nearly melted - we're not used to that sort of heat over here!!  Thank god for air conditioning!!  I won't bore you with millions of pictures (you'll be glad to know!), but just to prove I was in Washington here's probably the most famous of all the beautiful buildings I saw:  (If you're "friends" with me personally on Facebook, all my pics are on my profile page)

You'll just have to take my word for the fact that I was behind the camera!!  I toured the city firstly in a World War Two "Duck" (amphibious vehicle) which was great fun, then again on a "hop on, hop off" trolley bus tour.  They're both a bit of a challenge to get onto, but you get a live commentary, and lots of interesting facts about the city, without wearing out the old tootsies. 

I also attended CMTA's Family Conference on Saturday 2nd July - in the same venue, and there's a lovely long report on this, written by Elizabeth Ouelette, one of CMTA's Board Members here - http://www.cmt.org.uk/Family_Conference_In_DC.php

It was slightly surreal attending a conference and not being the one organising it!  But it was extremely well organised, although I can't imagine you all liking the venue.  I mean, it was beautiful, gorgeous grounds, excellent food, free refreshments - but boy, it was HUGE, and spread over a large campus - there was quite a trek up a hill from the conference room to the restaurant for lunch!  I walked MILES around that hotel!   

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