Abstract
The International Congress of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (ICIEM) is held every 4 years in different locations selected by the International Organizing Committee, formed by representatives of the 5 member societies which rotate as host of the event. Despite the fact that we are already in the 13th edition, the 2017 ICIEM happened in Latin America for the first time. The Latin American Society of Inborn Errors of Metabolism and Neonatal Screening (SLEIMPN) carefully choose the city of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil, which has been renovated to be the host city for the FIFA World Cup (2014) and the Olympic Games (2016). The conference was organized in a brand new convention center in the modern district of Barra da Tijuca, in the Southern part of the city. The 13th edition was a success with 2127 delegates registered from 85 different countries representing all continents, with a total of 1117 abstracts submitted for presentation. The intense scientific program included 7 plenary sessions (22 presentations), 16 parallel sessions (84 presentations), 5 preconference sessions (23 presentations), and 2 extra sessions (3 presentations), with a total of 132 presentations within 30 sessions. In addition, 4 satellite symposia and 13 sponsored symposia were held. The Journal of Inborn Errors of Metabolism and Screening (JIEMS), the official journal of SLEIMPN, published the 13th ICIEM annals with all the 919 abstracts accepted for presentation and the 48 late-breaking news abstracts which are freely available at the journal web site. Lastly, the JIEMS is now offering here a special issue with 8 papers selected from contributions presented at the conference. The papers included in this special issue are representative of the major IEM types, in the sense that the 3 main types of presentation (intoxication, energy metabolism, and organelles disorders) are hereby included, as well as some hot topics discussed during the conference (nutrigenomics, micronutrients, oxidative stress, innovative diagnosis, and therapy methods). We are confident that besides the limited number of papers included here, these contributions are a very good example of the scientific excellence of ICIEM. This special issue also contributes to establish ICIEM even more as the most important event in the IEM field not only for Latin America, but worldwide.