Neurodegenerative Diseases: New Insights and Therapeutic Opportunities

joint with Neural Environment in Disease: Glial Responses and Neuroinflammation

Organizer(s): Valina L. Dawson, Joseph W. Lewcock and Fred H. Gage

Sponsored by BioLegend, Inc., Biogen, BlueRock Therapeutics, Genentech, Inc., Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Roche and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited

Summary of Meeting:

The global burden of neurodegenerative disease is staggering and growing at an alarming rate as the population ages. While Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, as well as, Parkinson’s disease and related disorders, account for the majority of those afflicted, there are also less common but equally devastating diseases. Technical and conceptual advances are revealing disease mechanisms and providing new therapeutic opportunities. Misfolded proteins have been understood to be at the center of neurodegenerative diseases but recently there is an appreciation that these misfolded proteins may serve as seeds to template the misfolding of normal proteins, that transmission of these seeds may underlie disease progression, and that there may be different strains of these seeds with differential toxicities. Biophysical analysis of these proteins reveals a role for phase transition and liquid demixing of these intrinsically disordered proteins. Synaptic loss is an important feature of neurodegeneration which may occur long before neuronal loss, but be critically important in disease presentation and loss of function. Glia and immune activation contribute to neurodegeneration and synaptic loss, and must be understood and controlled if the disease process is to be tempered or stopped. This conference aims to address the current state of knowledge in these emerging area and to provide advanced discussion of these topics; the opportunity for interaction between scientists from different fields of research will foster new collaborations that may lead to new therapeutic opportunities to combat the coming crisis and provide medical care for those suffering from neurodegenerative diseases.

Scholarship Deadline: February 13 2019

Discounted Abstract Deadline: February 13 2019

Abstract Deadline: March 13 2019

Discounted Registration Deadline: April 16 2019

Keystone Symposia thanks our Sponsor(s) for generously supporting this meeting:

We gratefully acknowledge additional support from these exhibitors at this conference:

We gratefully acknowledge additional support for this conference from:

We gratefully acknowledge additional in-kind support for this conference from those foregoing speaker expense reimbursements:

Denali Therapeutics Inc.

Genentech, Inc.

H. Lundbeck A/S

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Merck & Co., Inc.

We gratefully acknowledge the generous grant for this conference provided by:

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Grant No. 1R13NS111936-01
Funding for this conference was made possible (in part) by 1R13NS111936-01 from the National Institutes of Health. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

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