About ARC-2015
The International Ataxia Research Conference 2015 took place in Windsor, England on the 25th-28th of March. It was hailed as a great success for the advancement of Ataxia research with new collaborations being formed and ground breaking research being presented. Delegates arrived from all over the world to discuss the latest research in the Ataxias, and around 340 people attended in total. We would like to thank everyone who attended the conference and we hope that it inspired you to keep up the great work!
Session summaries
To share the exciting research presented at the conference, we asked several researchers in attendance to write lay summaries of each session highlighting the main areas of interest.
Session 1: New genes and developments in diagnosis of the ataxias
Session 2: Genetic and molecular mechanisms of the ataxias
Session 3a: Cellular and animal models of Friedreich’s ataxia
Session 3b: Cellular and animal models of other ataxias
Session 4: Cellular and systemic pathways
Session 5: Drug discovery and emerging therapeutic strategies
Session 6: Biomarkers and function measures
Session 7: Clinical trials and trial design
Further resources
If you are interested in knowing more about the conference you can take a look at the abstract book, programme and the delegate list.
If you would like to find out more about drug development, take a look at the report on the interview with Pavel Balabanov from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which took place at the conference.
The research presented at the IARC 2015 was conducted all over the world, as illustrated on this map:
Lay talks from the euroataxia meeting
These lay talks took place at the 2015 meeting for Euro-ataxia members, a federation of Ataxia charities from across Europe.
Marios Hadjivassiliou’s talk on the causes of ataxia
To view the presentation that corresponds with the talk, please click here.
Matthis Synofzik’s talk on genes, genetic mechanisms and diagnostic challenges
To view the presentation that corresponds with the talk, please click here.
Dr Manolis Fanto’s talk on animal models of hereditary ataxias
To view the presentation that corresponds with the talk, please click here.
Dr Mark Pook’s talk on current drug treatment research in Friedreich’s ataxia
To view the presentation that corresponds with the talk, please click here.
Pictures
– Poster and oral presentations
– Kyle Bryant’s standing ovation after his inspirational talk
”I would like to say thank you to the all of the work the ARC Committee has put into making the conference run without a hitch! It was a truly rewarding experience for me as a graduate student to be welcomed into such a wonderful community of patients, clinicians and researchers all working together to cure the ataxias.”  Â
–IARC 2015 Conference AttendeeÂ
The conference was closed by Clodagh Clerkin, who read her poem about what it’s like to live with ataxia and the hope that the research conference has brought her, click here to read it.
Many thanks to the Scientific Steering Committee:
Ataxia UK, Ataxia Ireland, FARA and GoFAR.
