Pisa Muscle Award special issue presentation

Esteemed Colleagues, Dear Friends,

the advancement of knowledge on pathogenic mechanisms underlying genetic neuromuscular disorders and especially the spectacular achievements in molecular disease modifying treatments has substantially changed the landscape of clinical myology. The meeting we have organized in Pisa last November, 17, Pisa Muscle Award 2024 II Edition, in collaboration with the Italian Association of Myology, was conceived with the aim to highlight recent steps along this way, strengthening the intimate relationships between damage pathway knowledge and design of narrowed targeted therapies, more and more toward the concept of a personalized medicine.

By now a not negligible number of new treatments are on the field or are emerging for several muscle diseases, a point that has been discussed 2024 Pisa Muscle Award meeting, presenting the latest advancements and illustrating new exciting frontiers related to this topic. The event has brought together leading and young researchers and clinicians to share their findings and explore new treatment avenues for various muscular disorders with the goal to foster collaboration and inspire innovative approaches to improve patient’s outcome. New therapeutic avenues have been deeply addressed, for facioscapolohumeral muscular dystrophy, myotonic syndromes, spinal muscular atrophy and Pompe’s disease. Emerging challenges of clinical management for the new phenotypes of dystrophinopathies and the needs of biomarkers in complex models of diseases such as laminopathies and mitochondrial diseases have then been discussed.

The meeting has been also organized with the intention of celebrating the history of myology within the Italian Association of Myology, awarding a lifetime achievement career also intended as inspiring model and bridge toward the future for young scientists interested in muscle diseases.

The first edition, held in November in 2023, the first edition awarded the prize to professor emeritus Corrado Angelini (University of Padua, Italy), for his longstanding and internationally recognized efforts in the field of Myology.

In this second edition, the Pisa Muscle Award 2024 was given to professor Luisa Politano (University “Luigi Vanvitelli” of Naples) for her long career and important contributions in the field of cardiomyology, always in close collaboration with the Italian Myology Association and patients associations.

Overall, we truly hope that Pisa Muscle Award, born from the idea and interest in the topic developed over the years by our Pisa group, in concert with the Association Italian Myology, can become a tradition for the future, an event for celebrating the advancement of knowledge in muscle diseases as a small but significant sign of appreciation on the part of the myological community towards researchers who have contributed to the advancement of knowledge in this field.

It has therefore been our pleasure to collect the contributions of participants to Pisa Muscle Award 2024 II Edition in this special number of Acta Myologica.