201st ENMC International Workshop: Autophagy in muscular dystrophies – Translational approach, 1–3 November 2013, Bussum, The Netherlands

Abstract

The 201st ENMC International Workshop on autophagy in muscular dystrophies (MD) was held in Bussum, The Netherlands, on 1–3 November 2013, and was attended by 20 participants from 10 countries (France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom, and USA). Participants included biochemists, biologists, pathologists, molecular geneticists, neurologists, and paediatricians. The first session of the workshop focused on the basic mechanism of autophagy in particular autophagosome formation and regulation, selective types of autophagy (chaperone-assisted and mitophagy), and the role of autophagy in muscle homeostasis. Further sessions concentrated on the current understanding of the role of autophagy in several muscle disorders including Pompe disease, Danon disease, X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy (XMEA), laminopathies, GNE myopathy, centronuclear myopathies, myofibrillar myopathies, limb-girdle muscular dystrophies, oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD), distal myopathies, inclusion body myopathy associated with Paget’s disease