Professor Dirk Dressler, head of Movement Disorders Section at Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany, was invited as keynote lecturer at the annual congress of the Chinese Botulinum Toxin Society, 6/28-29,2024 in Wuhan. In his talk, he discussed the immunology of botulinum toxin drugs. ‘Immunological issues represent one of the biggest challenges of botulinum toxin therapy. We recognized this problem as early as the 2000s and have addressed it scientifically ever since,’ said Dressler, who dedicated his habilitation thesis to this topic. ‘This congress has high priority to us. We have attended this congress series regularly and have conceptually supported it since its start’, explains Dressler who is closely connected to the Chinese botulinum toxin scene as Co-director of Tongji University Botulinum Toxin Research Center in Shanghai.

The congress was attended by over 500 participants from across China and is considered the most important national event on this subject. It is held annually by the Neurotoxin Branch of the Chinese Neuroscience Society (NTCNS), which has more than 800 members. Professor Lingjing Jin from Shanghai, with whom Dressler has maintained a long-standing scientific collaboration, leads the NTCNS. The honorary chairperson is Professor Xinhua Wan from Beijing.

Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, is located on the Yangtze River and has over 14 million residents. The city gained international attention as the starting point of the COVID pandemic in 2019.