The American Society of Peripheral Nerve has had an outstanding year. As a society, we continue to grow financially and in our membership. The ASPN Council continues to work towards the development of vision and mission statements to guide our future strategic plan. These statements and plans will be presented for your review and input at the 2020 Annual meeting.

The 2020 ASPN annual meeting promises to be an outstanding scientific and educational program for clinicians and researchers. Thank you to Dr. Amy Moore and the Program committee who have work diligently over the past year to ensure that the ASPN program will be an excellent educational experience. The program begins on Friday January 9, 2020 through to Sunday January 12, 2020 with outstanding instructional courses, panels, and scientific sessions. Our invited speakers include Scott Kozin MD, Susan Mackinnon MD, Eric Olson PhD and a perspective from NASA with Paul Cederna MD and Andrew Feustel PhD. The theme of collegiality and collaborative programming continues with the American Association for Hand Surgery and American Society of Reconstructive Microsurgery. I look forward to seeing you in January!

To maintain the ASPN at the forefront of nerve surgery, the Society depends on the efforts of the ASPN Committees. Thank you to the ASPN members who have dedicated their time and expertise to the Society. I encourage you to become involved in the ASPN and to support the Society by sharing your expertise through the committees, Synapse, and the Annual meeting. As announced in the previous issue of Synapse, under the guidance of Sarah Boardman and PRRI, the IRS application for tax exempt status was successful. ASPN now has 501c status and can offer the tax deductible benefit for charitable donations. I hope that you will continue to generously support the education and research initiatives which will ultimately benefit the care of patients with nerve pathologies.

I welcome your comments and suggestions and thank you for your continued support of ASPN. I wish you the best of the season and a happy, healthy holiday!

The accumulation of T cells within acellular nerve allografts is length-dependent and critical for nerve regeneration. Pan D1, Hunter DA1, Schellhardt L1, Jo S1, Santosa KB1, Larson EL1, Fuchs AG2, Snyder-Warwick AK1, Mackinnon SE1, Wood MD3. 1Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA., 2Section of Acute and Critical Care Surgery, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA., 3Division of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Exp Neurol. 2019 Aug;318:216-231. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2019.05.009. Epub 2019 May 11. Read More

Deng Pan (1st author) with research mentors Susan Mackinnon (left) and Matthew Wood (right) at Deng's PhD thesis defense.

Charles Daly, MD Emory University Atlanta, Georgia	Christopher Dy, MD, MPH, FACS Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis, Missouri	Philip Hanwright, MD Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Baltimore, Maryland
Bart Kachniarz, MD, MBA Johns Hopkins Hospital/ University of Maryland Medical Center Baltimore, Maryland	Amber R. Leis, MD University of California, Irvine Orange, California	Reiner See, MD Neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital Neurologist at Spaulding Rehabiltation Hospital Instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School
Jose E. Telich, MD Hospital General "Dr. Manuel Gea Gonzalez" Mexico City, Mexico