? Disturbances in cerebral blood flow and metabolism occurring during fetal, neonatal, and early childhood are major contributors to permanent brain damage and cerebral dysfunction in children and adults. Animal models of pre- and perinatal brain damage, due to a variety of causes, are available and continue to provide insight into the physiologic and biochemical processes involved. Cellular and molecular biological techniques have been applied to the study of normal and abnormal cerebral development, sophisticated neuroimaging techniques in both humans and experimental animals have allowed longitudinal study of the evolution of brain injury. The power of genomics and proteomics offers an array of new approaches to genetic and pharmacologic intervention and neuroprotection. Our three previous, highly successful, meetings held in Hershey, PA in 1997, 2000, and 2002, focused primarily on mechanisms of normal and abnormal cerebral development and function. Multi-year funding is being requested to continue these meetings on a biannual basis and alternate location from West Coast, East Coast, Europe /Britain. These meetings will continue the tradition of combining our ever-expanding understanding of normal and abnormal cerebral development and the unique features which impact on the response to injury, with the most up-to-date techniques for evaluation and intervention. Accordingly, the themes for the 2004 conference, to be held in Monterey, California, are: 1) Cellular and molecular biology of neurodevelopment and regeneration; 2) Neural response to injury in experimental models; 3) Response to injury in infants and children; 4) Evolution and enrichment; 5) Discovery- new advances in neuroprotection. One or more platform and poster sessions will be devoted to each theme with the anticipation that all attendees will have the opportunity to present and to engage in active participation. Most of the invited speakers for the 2004 conference have already committed to the conference, pending NIH financial support; invited speaker lists for 2006 and 2008 are being formulated. The choice of settings for the future meetings will preserve the positive attributes of the Hershey setting in that all meeting sites will be relatively self-contained with accommodations, meals, and meeting rooms on site to maximize informal interaction among participants with the formation on new collaborations and new research.
