Protagonist families of the V International Conference on Down syndrome

Scheduled in Rome from 5 to 8 June. Eugenio Barone, president of the organizing committee: "It's a pride for Italy"

ROME – Everything is ready for the V International Conference dedicated to Down syndrome, organized by T21 Research Society (T21RS), scheduled in Rome from 5 to June 8. The mission of T21RS is to promote basic and applied research on Down syndrome, stimulate translational research, and apply new scientific knowledge to improve the quality of life of people with Down syndrome. The meeting in Rome will be a think tank dedicated to Down syndrome that will bring together researchers, doctors and industrialists who conduct clinical trials, patient organizations, families, to together outline future directions for research on the syndrome of Down. The latest meeting, in Long Beach, California in 2022 with participants from 28 different countries around the world. About 500 scientists are expected to attend the Rome event, a record for this year’s edition. Additionally, over 400 people have registered for the Family Parallel Program.

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ITALY

“It is the first time that Italy hosts the international conference – explains Eugenio Barone, professor of biochemistry at the Sapienza University of Rome and president of the event’s organizing committee– for us it is a reason of great pride. The choice of Italy is a demonstration of the value of the research carried out in our country in the field of Down syndrome”. On a global level, in fact, “our country is positioned very well, we carry out high quality research. Doing research on Down syndrome is something that goes beyond studying the syndrome itself – continues Barone – because it allows us to understand many other pathologies that occur in the general population, such as metabolic, neurodegenerative and immune ones. Often, in the scientific field, we talk about Down syndrome as a condition of premature aging. strong> therefore what could happen in a person around the age of 60-70, in the person with Down syndrome occurs much earlier, already around the age of 45-55. Therefore opening a window on these pathologies it allows us to see what the progression is and possibly slow it down Studying Down syndrome therefore has an added value because in addition to doing it for the syndrome itself, we do it for the entire population in general.”
During the international conference, the latest data and updates relating to scientific research on Down syndrome will be presented, as well as an entire session, ‘industry session’, in which the main pharmaceutical companies and international research groups involved in clinical trials on Down syndrome will sit around the same table to discuss the progress of the work and future objectives. “Talking about clinical trials is very important news, it means that research has made enormous progress, so much so that today the life expectancy of a person with Down syndrome is around 60 years”, underlined Barone again.