This application requests partial support for a meeting on the Neurobiology of Brain Disorders, this time with a special emphasis on the impact of aging on the dysfunction of the nervous system, as part of a Gordon Research Conference series to be held at Melia Golf Vichy Catalan Resort near Girona, Spain from August 7- August 12, 2016.
The Specific Aims of this GRC are to bring together leading scientists who are at the forefront of the field of neurodegenerative and aging-related disorders of the nervous system to present and discuss their latest findings and concepts. The Conference will feature wide-ranging, but related topics that are relevant to common disease mechanisms of different neurodegenerative and aging-related disorders, such as synaptic dysfunction, protein homeostasis-misfolding-aggregation, circuit and network dysfunction, genetic factors, RNA mechanisms, therapeutic opportunities and biomarkers. Invited speakers represent a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, electrophysiolog and imaging technology. Every effort will be made to encourage participation of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty members as well as women and underrepresented minorities. The Conference will provide opportunities for junior scientists to present their work in poster sessions and to interact informally with leaders in the field. In addition, short talks will be selected from submitted posters, so junior scientists will have opportunities to participate in oral presentations. The collegial atmosphere and the ample free time in the afternoons and late evenings provide ideal settings for participants from different disciplines to brainstorm and establish interdisciplinary collaborations. The significance of this application is that this GRC will provide a unique forum for the international community working on the neurobiology of brain disorders to come together and discuss the latest advances and the future challenges in the field of neurodegeneration and aging-related disorders of the nervous system. The relevance of this application to public health is that the discussions generated will help define the most pertinent important questions in the field of neurodegenerative diseases in terms of both basic biology and disease mechanisms, which will aid the development of novel therapeutic strategies for these devastating diseases that are major public health problems. The long-term goal of this GRC is to provide a consistent platform for the community to meet regularly (every two years) in order to disseminate the most recent discoveries and to formulate the most important questions concerning the current state of the art research on brain disorders.
Neurodegenerative and aging-related diseases of the nervous system pose rapidly increasing public health problems; for example, Alzheimer's disease alone represents the 4th leading cause of death among the elderly in developed countries. This Gordon Research Conference intends to bring together scientists who work on basic biology and disease mechanisms of these brain disorders to discuss the latest advances and define future important questions. A Gordon Conference is an ideal venue that allows participants to present and discuss freely unpublished data and their implications as well as formulate future challenges for better understanding of disease mechanisms and developing novel therapeutic strategies.
