Overviewing the 2025 MDA Clinical & Scientific Conference Agenda

Donald S. Wood, PhD

The Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the lives of individuals living with muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and other neuromuscular diseases. Founded in 1950, the MDA funds groundbreaking research, provides critical support and care resources for patients and families, and advocates for policies that improve access to care and treatment. Above all, the organization works to advance the understanding of neuromuscular diseases and accelerate the development of therapies and cures.

Each year, the MDA hosts its Clinical & Scientific Conference, a premier event in the field of neuromuscular medicine that brings together leading researchers, clinicians, industry representatives, and other specialists from around the globe. The conference serves as a platform to share the latest scientific discoveries, clinical advancements, and therapeutic breakthroughs. It also plays a role in educating the medical community, fostering collaborations, and accelerating progress in treating neuromuscular disorders.

The organization has already begun prepping for its 2025 meeting, which is set to take place March 16-19 at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas. Prior to the event, NeurologyLive® sat down with Donald S. Wood, PhD, president and chief executive officer of the MDA, to discuss the agenda of the conference and what clinicians should look forward to. In the conversation, Wood gave insight on some of the notable sessions and themes represented in the upcoming meeting, as well as the types of clinicians that can gain educational benefit from this event. Furthermore, he spoke on how the agenda aligns with the progress made in the field and some of the emerging research and drug development.

For more information on MDA 2025, click here.

NeurologyLive: Can you give an overview of the conference and what clinicians can expect from the agenda?

Donald S. Wood, PhD: The overview is huge when you get right down to it. The entire field of neuromuscular disease medicine has advanced so rapidly that everybody has trouble keeping up, especially clinicians in the clinic. When families with these diseases come to them, they come very well-educated. They’ve been on the internet, they've come to the MDA, they've been trained, and they know what the new treatments are about. Staying up-to-date with the pace at which new treatments and scientific insights are becoming available—along with the management of patients—is a huge process and a big challenge.

Why? Well, there are two things going on. One is the introduction of genetic medicine. We now have some neuromuscular disorders that are actually treatable by addressing the genetic problem. But the other issue is something we don’t talk about enough: most of these neuromuscular diseases are progressive. They get worse over time. If you see an individual with one of these diseases on January 1 and then see them a year later, they will have progressed. So how do you treat that? How do you manage it?

That’s a core part of MDA's medical and scientific conference, which is the most advanced neuromuscular disease conference in the world. If you want to understand the science behind the new discoveries, learn about the next FDA-approved therapies or ones in research and clinical trials, and figure out how to manage patients effectively, this is the only conference where you’ll get all of that.

Who should attend the meeting? How can this meeting benefit those who treat various neuromuscular disorders?

Well, this really gets to the heart of things. For the first time, we’re seeing people being actively treated for these disorders. That brings in all sorts of specialists—physical therapists, occupational therapists, and others—who also need to attend this conference. Why? Because managing these treatments is complex. It’s not like going to your local general practitioner and getting a prescription. No, it doesn’t work that way. You have to manage the course of the treatment relative to what the patient is going through, and that requires a multidisciplinary approach involving families, therapists, and other specialists.

This is one of the exciting things about our conference. We’re now bringing in experts from physical therapy, occupational therapy, genetic counseling, and other supportive fields that patients and families need. It’s very different from 20 years ago, when there were no treatments or hope. Now, not only do you need multidisciplinary teams for FDA-approved therapies, but also for clinical trials.

Think about the clinical trials. What I tell physicians nowadays is, if you diagnose someone with a neuromuscular disease—virtually any neuromuscular disease—the next thing you have to do is help that individual prepare to enter a clinical trial. That involves a lot, starting with identifying the genetic defect down to the specific gene causing the disorder. Why? Because different defects require different therapies. And where are you going to learn about all this? By coming to our conference.

Are there any unique sessions that clinicians should keep their eye on?

Let me highlight two big ones that I think everyone will appreciate. First is artificial intelligence. It’s not something that’s “coming”—it’s here. AI is already playing a role in the doctor’s office by helping clinicians stay abreast of the latest developments. The field is progressing so rapidly, and the information available is so vast, that patients are coming in with highly sophisticated questions. You can’t answer those questions in real time unless you have access to AI. We’ll have sessions on how to use AI in clinical settings, which will be helpful to everyone.

My personal favorite, though, is muscle regeneration. Now that we’re seeing some treatments actually work—stopping the progression of a disorder—it raises a new question: what happens next? These treatments stop the disorder but don’t reverse it, meaning any lost function stays lost. So now we’re focusing on muscle regeneration. This is incredibly exciting because it involves understanding how to regenerate muscle in people with genetic neuromuscular disabilities.

But muscle regeneration doesn’t happen without neural input. So we’re bringing together experts in both nerve and muscle science to collaborate. At this conference, MDA held one of the first-ever meetings of this kind earlier this year, and the excitement was palpable. This is a brand-new field, bringing in new people and new ideas, and when we talk about genetic therapy, muscle regeneration involves cellular therapy. The discussions are expanding from genetic science to cellular science, and the potential to help people recover lost function is beyond exciting. Everybody should attend these sessions.

From an educational perspective, what can clinicians gain from this meeting?

This meeting will help educate clinicians about the cutting-edge boundaries we’re at right now—what works in the clinic versus what still needs more research. The progress in this field has been so fast that patients and families are expecting things to move quickly into clinical practice. That’s why physicians must attend this meeting: to understand what’s possible right now in the clinic.

Clinicians also need to evaluate the resources available in their clinics. They might not have access to everything patients and families are looking for, and this meeting helps them identify gaps and learn what’s possible elsewhere. The benefit of that is twofold: first, it ensures clinicians are honest and transparent with patients about what they can deliver. And second, it helps clinicians know what they don’t know—what they need to learn.

As I always say, the wisest people I know are those who understand what they don’t know. That’s what makes this conference so essential: it helps clinicians identify the knowledge they need to gain and gives them the tools to get it.