After a two year break due to COVID, HD-CARE again held its annual symposium at the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center on October 29. In a change from prior years the format of the symposium was hybrid, with people able to attend in person at the Stem Cell Center as well as remotely via ZOOM. This allowed attendees who could not make the drive to UCI or couldn’t attend for the whole day still to participate. About 100 attendees registered for the symposium.
The theme of this symposium was Help and Hope. Almost all the presenters spoke on topics concerning how to live with and care for HD sufferers. In addition, Dr. Thompson’s keynote presentation showed that despite several clinical trials being ended prematurely, a lot has been learned from them and new research avenues and approaches have been identified. Dr. Thompson expressed continued optimism that today’s research and testing will lead to tomorrow’s cures and treatments.
The list of presenters included:
- Dr. Peter Donovan: Moderator
- Ms. Melody Bandley: Benefits of Neuro Physical Therapy
- Mr. Mitch Brookhyser: Family Planning Using PGD_IVF
- Ms. Laura Fonseca: Music Therapy
- Ms. Emily Sarnoff & Ms. Louise Pasciuto: Pre-Symptomatic Genetic Testing
- Ms. Angela Mandas: Speech & Swallowing Therapy
- Dr. Anna Morenkova: Clinical Care for People with Huntington’s Disease
- Ms. Gladys Newbury & Ms. Susan Reynolds: HDSA Support Groups
- Dr. Leslie Thompson: Huntington’s disease: Insights from the Lab…And why I keep going
As in the past, there were several exhibits in the room related to the presentations. They allowed on-site participants to follow up with some of the presenters.
You will find on this page links to the slides for most of the individual presentations (see above), as well as a video of Dr. Thompson’s presentation.
