THE FIRST FLORIDA FRAGILE X RESEARCH CONFERENCE

On April 15 and 16, 2007, Conquer Fragile X Foundation and the Scripps Research Institute were proud to sponsor the first Florida Fragile X Research Conference, entitled “From Mechanisms to Medicine” in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Despite one of the year’s worst storms affecting the East coast of the United States on the evening before and into the first day of the conference, everyone that committed to attend, in fact joined us. This first-of-it’s-kind conference was planned and developed by an organizing committee which comprises CFXF Scientific Advisors, Dr. Karen Usdin of the NIH, Dr. Giovanni Neri of the Catholic University in Rome, Dr. Gary Bassell of Emory University and Dr. Claes Wahlestedt of The Scripps Research
Institute. The day-and-a-half conference provided the unique opportunity for young investigators to present their work directly to their peers and to senior investigators as well as formal and informal opportunities for meetings between peers, mentors, and speakers. Among the countries represented at the conference were Italy, Spain, Belgium, and of course, every corner of the United States. Guest speakers included Dr. David Nelson of Baylor University, Dr. Fabrizio Gasparini of Novartis, and Dr. Randall Carpenter of Seaside Therapeutics. We are grateful for the support of Abbott Molecular, Inc., who provided some
sponsorship of the event.

Five Awards Given
As the focus of the conference has been placed on researchers new to fragile X, our organizers sought an innovative way to reward the exceptionally high quality work and stimulate excitement and maybe even a little competition among our conference speakers and poster presenters. The committee decided to make available a total of five “CFXF Rising Star” awards.Three awards of $1,250 each for the best oral presentation and two $750 awards for the best poster presentation. The awards committee, Dr. Karen Usdin, Chief, Gene Structure and Disease Section,National Institute ofDiabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Dr. Claes Wahlestedt, Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Director of Pharmacogenomics at The Scripps Research Institute, Professor Giovanni Neri of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at the Catholic at the Catholic University in Rome, Dr. David Nelson, The Cullen Foundation Professor in the Department ofMolecular and Human Genetics at Baylor College ofMedicine andDr.Gary Bassell, Associate Professor,Dept. of Cell Biology and Neurology at Emory University School of Medicine had the unenviable task of selecting the “best all around” presentations from among all the presenters.

The three $1250.00 CFXF Rising Star awards were given for the best oral presentation to Dr. Gul Dolen of MIT, Dr. Usha Narayana of Emory University, and Dr. Ravi udashetti, of Emory University and the two $750.00 CFXF Rising Star awards were given for the best poster presentation to Dr. Daman Kumari of the NIH and Dr. Silvia de Rubeis of the University of Rome, Tor Vergata. Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to all our speakers.