NeuroMI2024

Rationale

According to the 2022 WHO position paper , Brain Health can be defined as “the state of brain functioning across cognitive, sensory, social-emotional, behavioral and motor domains, allowing a person to realize their full potential over their life course, irrespective of the presence or absence of disorders”.

The EAN Brain Health Strategy - ‘one brain, one life, one approach’ - aims to develop a holistic approach to brain health that benefits society not just through a decreased healthcare burden due to neurological disorders, but through improved quality of life and productivity throughout an individual’s life course. The EAN’s vision is of a future in which individuals, populations, clinicians, and policymakers understand the benefits of good Brain Health and have the information and opportunities to preserve and recover Brain Health.

With worldwide aging populations, the burden of neurological diseases is increasing and represents a major cost for society. Dementia has the highest impact, with a prevalence expected to triplicate within 2050, up to 130 million worldwide, with the highest increase in developing countries.

Research showed us that molecular mechanisms leading to neurodegenerative disorders and dementia start decades before clinical onset and we have now available biomarkers revealing ongoing pathological processes before their clinical manifestations.

Moreover, new disease-modifying drugs and multidomain intervention strategies have been shown to have an impact on the progression of molecular mechanisms, on clinical course, and on the prevention of cognitive decline. However, implementation of such strategies requires a big effort from the scientific community, health systems, and policymakers.

Past COVID pandemic, the highest amount of money ever delivered from the European Community through the Next Generation EU funding, might shape our future if appropriately targeted to these ambitious goals. The Italian “Programma Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza” (PNRR) devoted a large amount of this European financing to collaborative strategic plans involving partnerships from Academia, Research Centers, and Public and Private Companies to address this big challenge.

On its tenth anniversary in 2024, the Milan Center for Neuroscience (NeuroMI) aims to devote its sixth international meeting to these themes and to gather top scientists involved in basic, clinical, and applied research to address these themes and promote synergies and collaborations to work together toward this ambitious goal.