Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders Annual Meeting

ABSTRACT
The Society for Inherited Metabolic Disorders (SIMD) requests support to provide scholarships for trainees to attend its annual meetings in years 2023 to 2027. The 2022 meeting will be held in Orlando, FL April 10-13, 2022. The 2022 meeting will be supported by no-cost extension of the previous grant. The 2023 meeting will be held in Salt Lake City, UT March 18-21, 2023 in conjunction with the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) following their meeting. The 2024 meeting is TBD. The 2025 meeting will be held in conjunction with the International Congress on Inborn Errors of Metabolism in Kyoto, Japan. The 2026 meeting is TBD. The 2027 meeting is TBD.

Inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) are an important cause of intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, neuromuscular disease, cardiac disorders, hepatic and renal dysfunction, arthritis, diabetes, growth failure and blindness. As the wide clinical and molecular spectrum of these disorders is being elucidated, in part fueled by the development of tandem mass spectroscopy and the rapid expansion of newborn screening programs, the number of affected individuals is now known to be much larger than originally recognized. In addition, therapies are available for some conditions, but few clinical trials have been performed to evaluate their efficacy. Thus, much remains to be done to better understand these severe disorders and develop effective treatments for them.

For the U.S. to remain pre-eminent in this important area of research, it is essential to attract young investigators into the field. One effective mechanism to achieve this goal is to provide them with the opportunity to participate in the SIMD meeting, where they can explore the field and develop scientific ties to other established investigators. The SIMD meeting is held annually and participation, especially by young investigators, has been steadily increasing each year. The availability of NIH travel awards has been a major reason for this increase.

Trainees seeking funding are required to submit an abstract describing original research to be presented at the meeting. We anticipate submission of 40 abstracts for presentation at each meeting from trainees/young investigators with twice that number for the international meeting (2025). Applications for travel awards will be competitively reviewed 4 months prior to each meeting, with the goal of making up 10 annual awards of $1,000 each for the national meeting and up to 5 awards of $2,000 for the International meeting. Additional funds will be solicited from private sources.

All applicants will be actively recruited.

Grant Number: 5R13HD108942-04
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Gerard Berry