Hosted at Mt. Snow, Vermont, the 2nd Gordon Research Conference on ALS and related motor neuron diseases (July 21-26, 2019) attracted investigators from around the world. Kate gave an invited talk at the Gordon Research Seminar that preceded the conference, Nico gave a short talk based on his poster, Mike and Ahmed both presented posters, and Sami led the session on RNA metabolism. Not a bad showing! 

LATE (limbic predominant age-associated TDP43 encephalopathy) is a recently described condition that may be responsible for memory decline in the oldest old (>85 years). While the prevalence of Alzheimer's decreases in this demographic, LATE continues to rise. But because LATE looks clinically indistinguishable from Alzheimer's, many people are inadvertently diagnosed with Alzheimer's, treated as if they have Alzheimer's, and are enrolled in studies for new treatments in Alzheimer's. While we have known that TDP43 is involved in ALS, frontotemporal dementia and perhaps Alzheimer's, this is one of the first indications that TDP43 may be primarily responsible for a disorder of memory in a growing fraction of the population. You can read about LATE and its implications below.