Invited by the AFM, nearly 900 researchers have been gathered in Marseille since yesterday to share their experience and knowledge of the muscle. “Thanks to your involvement, 21 years after the first Téléthon the genetic time-scale has been shortened and therapeutic advances obtained which have added years to patients’ lives,” declared Laurence Tiennot-Herment, president of the AFM, during her opening address.

 She also rendered a heartfelt tribute to Ketty Schwartz, president of the Scientific Council of the AFM since 1998, who passed away last December. “Neuromuscular diseases represent a laboratory of innovation in biomedical research,” she emphasised. Thomas Voit, president of the Congress and Medical and Scientific Director of the Institute of Myology in Paris, added “this is a motor of innovation for all medicine – cell, gene and pharmaco-genetic therapies will be the therapies of tomorrow.” The congress will carry out an inventory of myology, an emerging discipline and incubator of ideas for the whole of medical science.