Euromit 2026 brought 900 attendees to Angers, France, offering an international platform for researchers, clinicians and students to share latest advances in mitochondrial disease. The LifeArc LAC-TreatMito UCL team was well represented at the conference, as were partner sites Cambridge, Newcastle and Padua, funder and LifeArc PPIE partner The Lily Foundation and LifeArc co-funders MDUK.
The UCL delegation included LifeArc-funded research technician and PhD student Jana Aref and bioinformatician Tamara Hill, both based at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (IoN) in Prof Rob Pitceathly’s team. Jana presented a talk and poster at Euromit’s Young Investigator Day titled “Progranulin-associated frontotemporal dementia is characterised by mitochondrial dysfunction and bioenergetic deficits”. Tamara presented a poster on LifeArc project “MitoDetective; an optimised structural variant caller for long-read sequencing of mtDNA” describing a new tool for improved analysis and visualisation of large structural variants in mitochondrial DNA.
Also attending was PhD student Rebecca Lasalandra, from the UCL IoN Mitochondrial Medicine Group led by Professors Antonella Spinazzola and Ian Holt. Rebecca presented a poster titled “Multi-OMICs profiling uncovers novel mtDNA-responsive pathways and candidate regulators of mtDNA metabolism”. This work is co-funded by The Lily Foundation and is an important component of the LifeArc LAC-Treat Mito work package on nucleotide supplementation.
The conference provided a valuable opportunity for the wider LAC-TreatMito community to meet in person, connect with potential collaborators, generate interest in LifeArc’s funded research and draw inspiration from research across the global mitochondrial disease community.
Jana Aref commented “I really benefited from attending EuroMit. Many people gave me great ideas for my LifeArc-funded PhD project. I connected with potential collaborators and learned about their research and methodologies.”
Tamara Hill echoed this, saying “Euromit was a great opportunity to talk to many people about the new tool we have developed. It was so encouraging to hear how it could help the community’s research, and to get input on further development and our future plans generally.”
Photo captions
- Euromit UCL attendees from the Pitceathly team gather for a photo, L to R: Aine Moylett, Micol Falabella, Will Macken, Chiara Pizzamiglio, Jana Aref, Renata Kabiljo, Tamara Hill, Rob Pitceathly, all from UCL, and Carlo Viscomi, University of Milan.
- PhD student Rebecca Lasalandra from the team of Antonella Spinazzola and Ian Holt presents her poster.
