Meeting report: 2024 Muscular Dystrophy Association summit on ‘Safety and challenges in gene therapy of neuromuscular diseases’

This meeting report summarizes the presentations and discussions held at the summit on ‘Challenges in Gene Therapy’ hosted by the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) in 2024. Topics broadly cover in vitro and in vivo models for understanding of gene therapy related immune responses, strategies to improve safety and efficacy of next-generation gene therapies, and clinical site readiness for gene therapy and post-treatment monitoring. This year's summit also marked the launch of MDA's gene therapy support network – a national resource for patients and clinicians in the MDA care center network aimed at providing sites with the information and resources needed to deliver genetic medicines within our neuromuscular community. A series of recommendations around 8 topic areas including predicting immune responses, long-term follow up of treated individuals, and ethical considerations was derived from content presented at the meeting.