World Mitochondrial Disease Week Events

Events are taking place all over the world during World Mitochondrial Disease Week. 

Events include webinars for patients, doctors and researchers, virtual walks, Mito on My Street in the UK, Porch Light Up in Canada, Support Meetings, Light a Light for Mito hosted by Mito Action in the USA, an international effort for Light Up for Mito, and a Facebook Live event for LHON Awareness Day. 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, many of the events are taking place online, making them accessible to more people. 

Find out more about these events and how you can participate. 

Mitochondrial Association Finland (Mitofin) Joins IMP

IMP is delighted to welcome the Mitochondrial Association Finland (Mitofin) as its newest member.   

Mitofin is the only association in Scandinavia and Baltic area focused on mitochondrial disease. Founded 2018, it operates thanks to the support of volunteers.

The association offers support to its members, and it works closely with the University of Helsinki's Anu Wartiovaara group and other researchers.

Find out more at www.mitokondrioyhdistys.com on Facebook or on Instagram.

Mitofin is the sixteenth national mitochondrial disease organisation to join IMP. 

The map below gives a visual representation of the countries our members are located in: 

Australia - Mito Foundation

Belgium - Boks

Bulgaria - National Association of Patients with Mitochondrial Diseases

Canada - MitoCanada

Finland - Mitofin

France - Ammi

Germany - GDM

Italy - Mitocon

Spain - AEPMI

UK - The Lily Foundation & MDUK

USA - MitoAction & UMDF

Find out more about our members.

Gene Therapies and the Promise for Mitochondrial Disease

A Virtual Symposium

The Mito Foundation will hold a digital symposium on Thursday 17 September, as part of World Mitochondrial Disease Week (formerly Global Mitochondrial Disease Awareness Week). The Symposium will gather leading local and international mitochondrial disease (mito) experts to explore the latest research developments and their implications on future treatments and diagnosis of mito.

The Symposium's theme is "Gene Therapies and the Promise for Mitochondrial Disease".

Curated by two leading Australian mitochondrial disease experts, Prof Mike Ryan and Prof David Thorburn, the Symposium will explore the latest in gene therapies and the implications for future diagnosis and treatments.

The line-up of expert speakers from around the globe includes:

• Prof Ian Alexander, Children's Medical Research Institute (Australia)
• Dr Carlos Moraes, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami (USA)
• Dr Vamsi Mootha, Howard Hughes Medical Institute & Harvard Medical School (USA)
• Dr Beverly Mok, Harvard University (USA)

This is a rare opportunity to hear about the developments in mitochondrial research directly from the researchers. 

Find out more.

New LHON Brochure Released to Mark Inaugural

LHON Awareness Day

IMP has worked with experts in LHON to produce a brochure aimed at patients, their families and ophthalmologists. Please download it and share it with your eye doctor and with others to help them understand more about LHON.

The brochure is currently available in English and Italian. It will be translated into other languages where possible. The brochures will be available for download from this page soon.

Find out more about the inaugural LHON Awareness Day and the must-watch Facebook Live event taking place on Saturday 19 September. 

10th Italian Meeting on Mitochondrial Disease

Virtual Meeting

Mitocon is pleased to announce the 10th National Meeting on Mitochondrial Diseases, on October 9-10, 2020. Owing to the ongoing situation with Covid-19, it will be organised as a virtual conference.

The meeting will be in English to facilitate participation of doctors and researchers from all over the world, promoting international exchange and collaboration, crucial to fight together against mitochondrial diseases.

The meeting will bring together doctors, researchers and patients and will be a unique opportunity to discuss and update on current understandings of mitochondrial diseases and pathways towards diagnosis and treatment.

Mitochondrial diseases are very complex disorders little known by the scientific community itself until a few years ago. In recent years, giant steps have been taken in the study of the basic mechanisms involved in these diseases and we have finally moved from the diagnosis to the study of possible treatments.

Since its first edition in 2011, the annual Italian Meeting on Mitochondrial Diseases has contributed to this process by gathering the entire community of Italian doctors and researchers around the association of patients and helping to strengthen international partnerships and collaborations, making the whole community grow together and contributing to sharing knowledge and research progress.

The program, drawn up in collaboration with Mitocon’s Scientific Committee, has been designed to inspire the integration of technology and innovation into medical practice. In addition to the natural history of diseases and pre-clinical models, we will talk about the ”high tech” involvement in mitochondrial medicine, robotics and gene therapy. 

A very important session will be dedicated to the research of therapies, with a specific focus on an update on current clinical trials. It will be a unique opportunity for discussion between clinicians and industry and a real possibility for new collaborations.

This 10th edition of the meeting is dedicated to one of the fathers of mitochondrial medicine, Prof. Salvatore Di Mauro, for decades leading one of the first and main research groups on mitochondria at Columbia University in NY (US), which has attracted and built entire generations of mitochondriologists in Italy and worldwide. A special lecture will be dedicated to him for his 80 years.

Please click here to see the programme.

For information please contact: Mitocon Onlus at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call +39 (0)6 66991333 / +39 339 2880491.