Physicians and Researchers Welcome

 

The Angel Fund will co-sponsor a research symposium on July 31st and August 1st, 2008 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston. The symposium is designed to consider and critique new hypotheses for sporadic neurodegeneration.

 

According to scientific co-chairs Robert H. Brown, Jr., D.Phil., M.D., Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Day Neuromuscular Research Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown, and Daryl A. Bosco, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School Instructor at Massachusetts General Hospital, there has been extraordinary progress in

identifying gene defects that cause inherited forms of major neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) during the past decade. By contrast, there has been little progress in defining the origins of the

more common sporadic forms of these disorders.

 

The symposium will begin with an overview of lessons derived from Mendelian genetics and recent genome-wide analyses of sporadic neurodegenerative disorders. The present state of epidemiologic and toxicology investigations, as well as multiple pathways and processes that are relevant to sporadic

disorders of the nervous system, will be addressed, as will several novel therapeutic approaches that are currently being developed to treat neurodegenerative diseases.  The conference will conclude with a discussion of the conceptual and methodologic innovations that may define new research

directions for sporadic neurodegenerative diseases, including approaches that integrate genomic analysis and epidemiology.

 

This program facilitates the full engagement of junior investigators (students, post-docs, fellows, technicians, instructors and lecturers) by offering ample opportunities for networking, interacting with senior faculty and discussing mutual research and clinical interests. The Angel Fund Junior Investigator Awards will be given to the lead authors of the three most outstanding poster abstracts as adjudicated by an expert panel.

 

In addition to support from The Angel Fund, the program is supported by an educational grant from EMD Serono, Inc. The Angel Fund is also sponsoring travel awards to junior investigators who submit a poster abstract.

 

The symposium will address the needs of basic research scientists, clinicians, translational medicine researchers, neurologists, neuroscientists, and others interested in treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.  For information about the symposium, including registration visit the BioSymposia website at

 www.biosymposia.org or call 888-854-0800, or 781-681-2352.

 

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