Date: October 18, 2026
Time: 11:45 am to 12:45 pm
Room: Coral 4
Track: Interactive Lunch Workshop (ILW)
Demyelination is a key pathological feature across a wide spectrum of disorders affecting the peripheral and central nervous systems, including immune-mediated, metabolic, hereditary, toxic, and infectious neuropathies. Collectively, these conditions are highly prevalent and contribute substantially to disability through impaired nerve conduction, sensory loss, weakness, and pain. Importantly, demyelination is often a treatable and potentially reversible process—making it a critical target for both mechanistic discovery and therapeutic innovation.
This session will highlight recent advances in understanding the cellular and molecular drivers of myelin injury and repair, with emphasis on neuron–glia interactions, immune mechanisms, biomarkers, and translational models that bridge basic science to clinical care. We will also discuss evolving treatment paradigms, including immunotherapies, neuroprotective and promyelinating strategies, and approaches to improve monitoring of disease activity and recovery. The overarching goal is to accelerate progress from pathophysiology to precision therapeutics that restore myelin and improve outcomes for patients with demyelinating disorders.
At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to:
In this presentation Dr. Macklin will discuss how efficacy of B cell depleting therapies in MS is crucial to understanding the cellular impact of B cells and their immunoglobulins in MS.
In this presentation, Dr. Smith will discuss the role of serum biomarkers in predicting disease onset, relapse, and remission in demyelinating disease with a focus on NMOSD.