The MS Society’s research team is in the beautiful and historic city of New Orleans for the 2016 Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) Forum. ACTRIMS is a community of leaders in health and research in multiple sclerosis, who are coming together this week to discuss the latest scientific and treatment updates and form collaborations that will accelerate discovery and translation in the MS field. The theme of the conference is “Progressive MS: From Bench to Bedside and Back”. This means that the conference will highlight fundamental research evidence focused on progressive MS, and over the course of the next few days, the presentations will shift to translation of evidence and progress in clinical trials. 
Close to 60 travel awards were given to young investigators, some of which were provided by the MS Society of Canada as an extension of our efforts to foster a new generation of MS experts. Supporting young investigators is also crucial to ACTRIMS. In fact, the first set of scientific lectures delivered this afternoon were from promising junior researchers in the MS field (you can catch a glimpse of what they presented on my Twitter @Dr_KarenLee). I’ll be updating Twitter and the blog with the events that unfold here in New Orleans. Stay tuned!
ACTRIMS Forum 2016: The numbers
This is the first standalone conference hosted by ACTRIMS, with numbers surpassing the expectations of the conference Co-Chairs Dr. Benjamin Segal from the University of Michigan and Canada’s own Dr. Fiona Costello from the University of Calgary (they are pictured above with ACTRIMS President Dr. Suhayl Dhib-Jalbut from Rutgers University). Here is a breakdown of the numbers:
- Total attendance: 581
- Invited talks: 17
- Posters presented: 168
- Young investigators: 84