The 6th Suna
Kıraç Conference was held online on 19-20 April 2024 at Koç University. The
Conference entitled "Advances in Gene and
Molecular Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases: Recent Subcellular and
Clinical Insights" kicked off with the Welcome Address of İpek
Kıraç and was the first meeting after the passing of Suna Kıraç. The eleven
speakers from prestigious institutions in the USA and Europe, such as UMass,
Harvard, Kings College London, NIH, Johns Hopkins and Oxford Universities, were
world authorities and were brought together considering their multifaceted
approach to the subject. As always, the speakers contributed unpublished most
recent studies to the meeting.
Topics, including discovery of novel genes and
gene targeting, subcellular insights to selective vulnerability, non-neuronal
pathology in neurodegenerative diseases and dysfunction of RNA processing in
circuit-specific neurologic diseases were exhaustively discussed. The last
lecture of the meeting, dedicated to the memory of Suna Kıraç, delineated the
genetic structure of the ethnically very wealthy Anatolian peninsula as a rich
genetic pool and the complex molecular architecture of ALS in Turkey, so far an
under-investigated population at the molecular level. The meeting successfully
concluded with an interactive session on sporadic ALS.