Moment of the event / Photo by Ugnius Bagdonavičius
On 17–20 September, Vilnius University (VU) hosted the international scientific-practical conference EuroDysmorpho 2025, which has upheld strong traditions for 35 years, annually bringing together participants from various countries to engage in collaborative discussions on dysmorphology. This year, the conference moved from Slovenia to Lithuania and was held in Vilnius for the first time. The conference was organised by Assoc. Prof. Aušra Matulevičienė, Dr. Beata Aleksiūnienė, Lecturer Natalija Krasovskaja and Prof. Algirdas Utkus of the Department of Human and Medical Genetics of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at VU Faculty of Medicine.
The event was attended by over 100 dysmorphology enthusiasts from Albania, Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. The conference featured presentations by guest speakers with extensive expertise in their respective fields: Dr Zeynep Tümer’s (Denmark) presentation on “Epigenetics/DNA methylation and neurodevelopmental disorders”, Dr Outi Kuismin (Finland) – “Genetic etiology of intellectual disability – a Finnish perspective”, Dr Ann Nordgren (Sweden) – “Childhood cancer predisposition syndromes”, Prof. Dr Jan Deprest (Belgium) – “Predicting and reversing the natural history of spina bifida”, and Prof. Algirdas Utkus – “Reflections of congenital anomalies in Lithuanian mythological stories and legends”. A total of 62 scientific presentations addressed a broad spectrum of topics in syndromology.
Participants from the field of genetics shared their extensive experience in syndromology and engaged in stimulating discussions on idiopathic conditions or cases with several rare diseases and their unique phenotypes. The conference offered young geneticists an excellent opportunity not only to participate, but also to present their research to a diverse audience, take part in discussions with experts, expand their knowledge with fresh thoughts and ideas, and establish new international collaborations for future scientific projects.
The first international EuroDysmorpho seminar was initiated by Profs. Claude Stoll and Jean-Pierre Fryns back in 1990. The conference has lately been coordinated by Profs. Koenraad Devriendt and Alain Verloes, and the event is supported by the European Reference Network for Rare Malformation Syndromes, Intellectual and Other Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ERN-ITHACA) and the European Society of Human Genetics – Young Committee (ESHG-Y). Next year, the conference will take place in Italy.
Moment of the event / Photo by Ugnius Bagdonavičius