News 2023

Saturday 30th December 2023
Pediatric Clinical Recommendations is a 2023 Editors Choice in Genetics in Medicine
The "Updated clinical practice recommendations for managing children with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome", published in March 2023, has been named number one publication on the Editor’s Choice list of papers published this year in Genetics in Medicine, an official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG).

Here is the official announcement from Genetics and Medicine.
Friday 29th December 2023
Dr. Anne Bassett Named to the Order Of Canada
Congratulations to Dr. Anne Bassett, the Treasurer of the 22q Society, who was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada on December 28^th, 2023. She was honoured "for her research and clinical contributions to advancing our understanding of the genetics of schizophrenia, particularly in the identification and characterization of genetic subtypes of the disorder".

Dr. Bassett is the Dalglish Chair in 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11.2DS) and has been caring for affected patients and their families for over 30 years. An adult with 22q11.2DS is 20 times more likely than someone in the general population to develop schizophrenia, a serious but treatable psychiatric illness. At the Dalglish Family 22q Clinic, Dr. Bassett and her team provide ongoing care for adults with 22q11.2DS, and have a world-renowned clinical research program, with the aim to help adults with 22q achieve the best health and quality of life possible.

Our Society is very proud that Dr. Bassett’s contributions are being recognized by this special honour!

About the Order of Canada
Sunday 12th November 2023
Call for Abstract for Biennial Conference in Portugal
The 13^th Biennial International 22q11.2 Conference will take place in Silver Coast, Portugal from the early morning of Tuesday July 16^th to the late evening of Thursday 18^th, 2024.

The abstract portal will open on Monday January 22^nd, 2024, and close at midnight EST on Thursday February 22^nd, 2024. A direct link will be posted on our Silver Coast 2024 page and distributed shortly.

If you have any questions, please contact the conference planning officers at 22qmeeting@chop.edu.
Thursday 8th June 2023
22q11 European Conference - Dublin
The 5^th European 22q11 Conference will take place at Hyatt Centric Hotel - The Liberties in Dublin, Ireland, on November 18^th and 19^th, 2023. This is primarily a family meeting, and the local organizer of the conference is 22q11 Ireland.

All researchers working in the field of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome who are interested to present their recent findings at this occasion are welcome to submit a structured abstract of maximum 250 words to Maude.Schneider(at)unige.ch. The deadline for abstract submission is July 1^st, 2023. We hope to see you at the conference!
Monday 29th May 2023
Now Available: Traditional Chinese Version of Healthcare Recommendations for Adults
In early 2023, we published clinical recommendations for children and youth, adults, and prenatal care. We have now translated the adult document into Traditional Chinese. Many thanks to everyone involved in this important project. We hope to translate the guidelines into more languages. If you are able to contribute, please contact the lead authors.
Thursday 2nd February 2023
Updated Healthcare Recommendations published
The 22q11.2 Society is delighted to share with you that we have successfully published three very important papers:

The Updated Pediatric Healthcare Recommendations
Published February 2^nd, 2023

The Updated Adult Healthcare Recommendations
Published February 2^nd, 2023

Newly developed Prenatal Screening and Diagnostic Considerations for 22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome
Published January 6^th, 2023

We are enormously grateful for all those contributing to this work, in particular lead authors Sólveig Óskarsdóttir, Erik Boot, Donna McDonald-McGinn, Anne Bassett, and Natalie Blagowidow, as well as Lauren Lairson who provided immeasurable administrative support. We are sure these papers will be highly cited and most importantly will make a huge impact on clinical care for patients and families worldwide. Please feel free to share broadly.

Next on our “To Do” list will be to support the development of subspecialty guidelines, also discussed during the meeting in Split, capitalizing on the REDCap database built by Blaine Crowley and updated by Joanne Loo inclusive of literature reviewed from January 1, 1992 to April 14, 2021, the details of which can be found in the Supplemental Materials for the Adult and Pediatric Guidelines. Many of you signed up to participate in this work in Split but if you did not commit at the time/were not in attendance and would like to participate or would just like to confirm your interest now, please contact Erik Boot or Donna McDonald-McGinn, or send an email to website_editor(at)22qsociety.org. We are certain these too will be invaluable for patients and providers, and we very much hope to complete many of these papers prior to our next conference in 2024.

We sincerely hope you are as excited about these Society milestones as we are, and we look forward to sharing our collective continued progress moving forward.