Dear Colleagues,

Last month, we met in Montreal, Canada, for the PNS 2024 Annual Meeting. The meeting was a great success, with record-breaking North American attendance and abstract submission. 965 people attended in person this year, with 452 abstracts submitted for the meeting. Aligning with our mission, we continue to reach new members and broaden our global visibility.  

We want to thank the Scientific Program Committee for their help planning an exceptional educational program. A special thank you to the Scientific Program Committee Chairs, Marina Kennerson and Nortina Shahrizaila who led this effort and did an outstanding job preparing for the meeting. 

We also want to thank the PNS Junior Committee, led by Kathryn Moss and Paola Alberti, for their help in organizing the Saturday Education Day and daily ‘Lunch with the Experts’ roundtable discussions for our junior investigators.

Finally, we would like to thank the Local Organizing Committee, led by Angela Genge and Rami Massie, for their help with the local arrangements in Montreal.

During the Annual Meeting, we had the opportunity to present several awards. The prestigious Alan J Gebhart Prize for Excellence in Peripheral Nerve Research was co-awarded to Mary Reilly from University College London and Eduardo Nobile-Orazio from Milan University. The award recognizes their ongoing contributions to our mission of “improving the lives of people with peripheral neuropathies.” Eight named prizes were also awarded to Junior Members presenting abstracts at the meeting.

As many of you know, organizing a meeting of this magnitude would not be possible without the support of our industry partners. We thank our Annual Partners, Annexon Biosciences, argenx, AstraZeneca, CSL Behring, Sanofi, and Takeda, for their ongoing support.  With the generosity of our supporters, the PNS was able to provide complimentary registration to 177 Junior Members presenting abstracts at the meeting, and 22 travel grants for those presenting abstracts from low-income economies.   

This year remains one of growth and new initiatives for our Society.  In alignment with our strategic plan, ongoing PNS activities over the past year have included:

• The continuation of our PNS-funded training grant portfolio, launched in 2023, which is comprised of multi-year clinical and basic science training grants.
• The development of a new PNS International Outreach, Membership & Diversity Committee aimed at maximizing diversity and inclusion while supporting the visibility and participation of underrepresented PN scientists and clinicians.
• The implementation of a new social media communications plan to help further our Society’s reach and relevance.
• In partnership with the European Academy of Neurology (EAN), the formation and funding of a TTR-related Amyloid Neuropathy guideline taskforce to write a new guideline covering both diagnosis and treatment.
• Further development of new regional PN training programs in partnership with regional PN groups.

Lastly, I thank the PNS Board for their exceptional contributions, commitment to expanding society initiatives, strategic insight, and time. We look forward to exciting endeavors in the year to come. Running the PNS and organizing our meetings is a lot of work, and we would especially like to thank our PNS Executive Office Staff for their help in keeping new and existing projects running on our behalf. 

We look forward to seeing you all again in person at the 2025 PNS Annual Meeting at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), in Edinburgh, UK, from 17-20 May 2025.  Please note the shift in meeting dates to May.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Sumner, MD
President, Peripheral Nerve Society