One of the positive side effects of the pandemic is that it is now completely normal to exchange ideas digitally and to use a wide variety of media for this purpose. But nothing is as effective, exciting and informative as a face-to-face meeting. This was also shown at our 20th symposium, which we held on November 26, 2021 at the University Hospital in Essen. The around 40 participants on site exchanged views with the HSP researchers connected via Zoom on a total of 15 contributions (here too there were at least seven lectures on site) and led lively discussions on the latest research findings. As always, the symposium group was very international - speakers came from Australia, Canada, England, Spain, France, the Netherlands and the USA. In addition, we decided again to offer the event as a live stream like last time - over 2,000 viewers took advantage of this offer!
The current TWS award winners Darius Ebrahimi-Fakhari (Boston) and Catherine Rodger (Cambridge) presented their projects at the symposium. Gerald Fischer, chairman of the Austrian association Stopp HSP, gave the laudation for the winner of the EuroHSP-donated Adolf Strümpell Prize, endowed with € 2,500, Francesca Sardina from Rome.
This year's symposium was closely linked to the meeting of the TreatHSP network. The network for translational research on HSP is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.