Australia to put spotlight on global brain mapping initiatives

Australia is to host an eminent world congress as the prominence of brain mapping is growing around the globe. Recent and significant initiatives from the US and Europe have been initiated to better understand the brain and develop new and better treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s, autism and depression, and to help people suffering from brain injuries.

In 2013, President Barack Obama announced US$100 million in funding to develop new technologies to understand the brain. Brain science is also on the minds of Europeans; in 2013, the European Union announced nearly €1.2 billion for a 10-year proposal to computationally simulate the human brain from the level of molecules and neurons up through neuronal circuits.

For the first time, the Annual World Congress of the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics will visit Australia in March and shine the spotlight on current global advances in brain mapping and therapeutics. The annual event is a multidisciplinary forum designed to foster synergy amongst interdisciplinary researchers to further understand the brain function and nervous system. It serves as a platform from which to develop interactions between many of the stakeholders who also have extensive collaborations at national and international levels.

The theme for the 2014 Congress is ‘Brain Therapeutics - bringing together engineering, science and medicine’. The congress provides a strong platform for industry and biotech companies to interact with academia in frontiers of science in this field for translational initiatives involving diverse patient interest groups. The program will highlight state-of-the-art science and technology in the field of neuroscience, engineering, neurosurgery, psychiatry, psychology, molecular biology, neurology, radiology and oncology. It will also feature emerging areas such as nano-biotechnology, stem cell and regenerative medicine, molecular psychiatry and micro-surgery.

The congress committee has been co-convened by internationally acclaimed neurosurgeon Associate Professor Charlie Teo, director of the Centre for Minimally Invasive Neurosurgery and chairman of neurosurgery at the Prince of Wales Private Hospital in Sydney; and recognised stem cell specialist Associate Professor Kuldip Sidhu, Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales. Dr Babak Kateb, from the Maxin Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute in California, is the chair of the organising committee.

The congress will bring together the spectrum of experts involved in brain mapping and therapeutics including physicians, scientists, policymakers, funding agencies and industry to further the advances and applications in brain and spinal cord mapping and image-guided therapies (operative and non-operative).

The congress will be held from 17-19 March 2014 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney - the first time this important international event has been held in Australia.

For further information, please see www.worldbrainmapping.org.