Florida Atlantic Hosts Inaugural Event to Bring Focus to Amyloid-related Diseases
As amyloid proteins malfunction, they accumulate in various organs, such as the kidney, heart and brain, causing conditions like renal amyloidosis, stroke, and Alzheimer’s disease. To combat amyloidosis head-on, Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine held the first Amyloid-related Diseases Summit, established and funded by philanthropist Ann Wood and the Fairfaxwood Foundation.
The summit was chaired by Michael R. Dobbs, MD, the first endowed FairfaxWood Chair of Clinical Neurosciences, chair and professor of the Clinical Neurosciences Department and associate dean of clinical affairs within Florida Atlantic’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine. It was the first of many projected events aimed at discovering a cure for this currently incurable disease.
"Our initial summit focused on basic research in amyloid-related diseases. Future summits will bring together people who are making the discoveries and experts who can apply their findings. That’s where new treatments are made — that’s where the magic happens," Dobbs said.
The summit, called Breaking the Ice, gathered scientists from Florida Atlantic and across the globe, representing a broad cross-section of disciplines, including neuroscience, chemistry, molecular biophysics, pharmacy, and structural bioinformatics.
After sharing their research findings, participants were given unstructured time to simply interact. "It was a test to see what would happen when we put these individuals in a room together," Dobbs said. "I was surprised by how enthusiastic they were and how much they liked the format. They uniformly said they rarely get to have that kind of interaction, because conferences are usually very structured. At our summit, new relationships were forged, including pending research collaborations between people who had never met each other before."
Wood attended the summit both days. Her funding followed a $28 million scholarship gift in 2022 to support medical education at Florida Atlantic. Wanting to see the event for herself," she said. "We put them in a room and gave them all the time they needed. They’ll figure out a cure."
The next summit is slated for spring 2025. It will focus on the common threads between amyloid deposition in the heart and the brain, with double the participants, and — naturally — lots of unstructured time.