The Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS) is an international nonprofit organization of scientists, physicians, and other healthcare providers working together to investigate and treat diseases of the peripheral nervous system. Our own Brian Callaghan, MD, Fovette E. Dush Associate Professor of Neurology, serves as the chair of the organization’s Education Committee, which is tasked with promoting education, good clinical practice, and research in neuropathies internationally.
At the meeting itself, Dr. Callaghan co-chaired the Peter J. Dyck Plenary Lecture and the subsequent platform session with Mirlinda Ademi, MD, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. The platform session featured a presentation from NeuroNetwork Lead Statistician Evan Reynolds, PhD, on “The effect of surgical weight loss on diabetes complications in the severely obese.”
The following day, Rodica Pop-Busui, Larry D. Soderquist Professor of Diabetes and NeuroNetwork faculty member, kicked off the morning with a lecture entitled, “Inflammation as a therapeutic target for diabetic peripheral neuropathy.”
Later that day, Melissa Elafros, MD, PhD, Clinical Instructor of Neurology and NeuroNetwork Neuroepidemiologist, presented her poster: “Determining the prevalence of distal symmetric polyneuropathy in a low-income U.S. patient population.”
Since it was both Drs. Reynolds’s and Elafros’s first time attending PNS, we asked them to share a few of their personal highlights from the event.
Evan Reynolds, PhD, Lead Statistician and Postdoctoral Fellow:
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Brian Callaghan, MD, and Evan Reynolds, PhD (center and right), with Arthur K. Asbury/Presidential Plenary Lecturer
Pieter van Doorn, MD, PhDHaving the opportunity to meet the leading peripheral neuropathy clinical researchers from across the U.S. and the world. In particular, since this was my first PNS meeting, it was useful to hear about ongoing clinical studies of neuropathy.
- It was rewarding to present our research to some of the best minds in the field, as well as receive feedback regarding how we might improve our studies and additional interpretation of our results.
Melissa Elafros, MD, PhD, Clinical Instructor of Neurology and Neuroepidemiologist:
- I agree with Evan on the importance of getting feedback on our ongoing research. We spoke to a team from Rotterdam, which is also conducting a neuropathy prevalence study, like what we are doing in Flint, and they have also found gaps in neuropathy diagnosis. This suggests there are likely some universal things contributing to our findings. However, as our gap in diagnosis is larger than they found (and our prevalence of neuropathy is larger as well!), there are also things unique to our population and our setting that warrant further investigation.
- The networking! It’s always wonderful to put a face with a name on a manuscript, and this was no exception. It was also very encouraging to see what directions my career could take after speaking to some of the leaders in the field who trained at Michigan.
- Bonding with Evan and Brian. I arrived at U-M during COVID and, as we all know, building connections just hasn’t been the same. After four days straight with Evan and Brian…I really like them!