It opens tomorrow 6 September the SSIEM annual conference (Society for the Study of Inborn Errors of Metabolism) to be held at Roma at the Palazzo dei Congressi until 9 September. The congress is international and will see the presence of around 3.000 participants, doctors and professionals, from 74 different countries. The leading international experts in the field of rare metabolic diseases will participate, a topic that is assuming ever greater importance and interest in medicine. This year's edition has scientific as its main theme Metabolic pathways, cellular networks and beyond.
Metabolic diseases are 10% of rare diseases and many of these are pediatric, often affecting the central nervous system and about half of these are curable (click here to learn how to recognize them). Even at the political level we are moving in the direction of greater prevention of these diseases: in August the Parliament definitively approved - through the green light from the Senate Health Commission - the law that extends newborn screening from 3 to 40 rare diseases, foreseeing an expansion of the rapid blood test.
Lo screening methods it is carried out on newborns to promptly identify and treat rare metabolic diseases, making it possible to improve the chances of treatment and survival. The objective of the SSIEM congress, which returns to Italy for the second time after almost twenty years (the first was in 1999), is to promote the exchange of ideas between professionals in the sector, who through this meeting prepare to face the challenges future in the field of inborn errors of metabolism and, at the same time, improve the dissemination and exchange of information on the web between doctors, scientists and researchers.
Among the many personalities invited to speak at the congress, coming from all over the world, there are also some Italians who have been working abroad for years. These include Prof. Piero Rinaldo, one of the world's leading experts in neonatal screening and Prof. Massimo Zeviani, one of the pioneers in the research of mitochondrial diseases.
As explained by Prof. Carlo Dionisi Vici, head of the Metabolic Diseases Unit of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, who managed to bring the congress to Rome for the second time after twenty years, the scientific appointment "will be an to discuss the new frontiers of metabolic diseases at an international level, to respond to innovations in the field of laboratory diagnostics, new pharmacological therapies and gene therapy". The organization of the event is handled by Alpha FCM which has been organizing international medical-scientific conferences, events and congresses for 30 years.
