(ABC 6 News) – Every few years, the International Symposium on Amyloidosis is hosted in a different city. This time around, it was Rochester’s turn to host.

Amyloidosis is a rare disease that happens when a specific protein called, amyloid, builds in organs. Ultimately, that makes the organs not function properly. Over 1,000 physicians and scientists came from around the world for this conference.

“These amyloidosis diseases affect so many different tissues and whatever, we learn from each other. Hopefully, that synergy can help us get to better outcomes for our patients,” said Dr. Angela Dispenzieri who works in plasma cell disorders research at Mayo Clinic.

It’s an honor to host the event and Rochester found out it was going to be the host two years ago. Leaders say it wouldn’t be possible without dozens of workers.

“We have about 16 to 20 registration staff and event planner staff that work together on this. Then we also had about 10 audio [and] visual crew,” said Sheila Fick who is an event planner at Mayo Clinic.

Joe Ward, president of the Mayo Civic Center and Experience Rochester added, “We have over 50 full-time team members. Who in some form of capacity over the last two years, have been involved in this event. Our food team and our operations team have actually brought people in from outside the area from other facilities across the area to support this.”

The conference runs until the end of the week. The next symposium will be hosted in Uruguay in 2026.