Summary of the Neuro4D Conference,
May 15 - 16, 2023:
The Neuro4D Conference 2022 had 61 participants from 8 countries. 10 Academic Presentations, 10 Drug Discovery Presentations, 8 Service Company Presentations, 8 Panel Discussions, 11 Posters.
Some results originated from collaborations that were started during earlier Neuro4D conferences, as this conference is intended to facilitate success in joint drug discovery. The face to face interactions are vital for the success of this meeting: making new contacts and creating real science exchange.
All chairmen (Rakez Kayed, Neil Cashman, Knut Biber & Oliver Peters) gave comprehensive introductions into their field for 30 min, before the 10 min presentations followed. Each presentation was followed by 5 min of Q&A and a Chairman-led panel discussion of at least 15 min at the end of each session. Panel discussions were used for many questions and the exchange of information and experiences, and praised in the feedback forms. Short presentations and intense Q&A received positive feedback and encouragement. The poster session had a lot of space in the adjacent room, which was part of the forum, as was the exhibition with five booths. Posters were always populated during the breaks and many discussions let to new contacts and insights, as documented in the feedback forms.
At the end of day 1 many delegates enjoyed the tasting of local organic craft beer from the Sander brewery in Worms, which provided many different tastes from light ‘Helles’ to strong ‘IPA’. The following BBQ dinner was located outside on the beautiful terrace again, making use of the very sunny, but not really warm weather. The dinner was accompanied by life contemporary music from Julio Hierrezuelo and band. Many participants complimented us about the enjoyable evening and conversations were lively.
On the second day we had a focus on the diagnosis and clinical treatments of AD and other neurodegenerative diseases. Presentations on biomarkers determined from serum, CSF, but interestingly also from nasal secretion preceded the clinical session with presentations of Eisai, Priavoid, Grifols and Roche. Views on the recent clinical progress were optimistic, and the benefit of recent antibodies Lecanemab and recently Donanemab is encouraging. However antibody treatments clearly have limitations and important although thankfully rare side effects. Priavoid’s approach still impressed many delegates and we are very keen to see Phase II clinical study results in the future. In the last panel session, there was much interest in the clinical progress and the patient and caretaker-perceived effects on patients’ activity of daily living.
The poster price for the best presented approach in neurodegenerative disease drug discovery was selected by all participants and the second Neuro4D poster price 2023 was awarded to Janine Kutzsche from Dieter Willbold’s groups in Jülich and at the University of Düsseldorf, for: ‘A New Mode of Action for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Dementia’.
- Major Sponsors:
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- Conference Venue:
- Atrium Hotel Mainz
Flugplatzstraße 44
55126 Mainz
Germany
Tel.: +49 6131 80 15 0
info@atrium-mainz.de
www.atrium-mainz.de
- Poster Price presented at the International Neuro4D Conference 2023:
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A New Mode of Action for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD) (PDF)
- Topics Highlights:
- Evaluation Results:
- Feedback Neuro4D Conference 2022:
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Question*: Average Score #
(max 5, min1)Venue Did you enjoy the venue and atmosphere? 4,8 Content Was the conference overall scientific content fulfilling your expectations? 4,5 Overall quality of presentations, posters and speakers? 4,6 Organisation & Social Programm Quality of the organization and team? 4,8 Did you enjoy the breaks, meals, craft beer tasting? 4,9 Did you meet interesting new contacts? 4,6 Does Neuro4D cover important aspects outside of existing conferences like ADPD, AAIC, SfN? 3,9 Would you want to participate in Neuro4D 2024? 4,1 Or only 2024#? 2,5#
* Open questions and their answers are not shown.
# Absence of vote was counted as lowest score ‘1’ - Organizer:
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Dr. Andreas Köpke (bioExpert)
Tel: +49 6136 957 3000
info@bioexpert.biz
Significant clinical success of the new Alzheimer’s dementia treatments by antibody drugs directed against misfolded soluble amyloid-β forms brings new enthusiasm and proof of concept to the field. At this time, minimally-invasive diagnostic tests become more important, as clinical results clearly demonstrate that patients should be treated as early as possible for maximum benefit.
Aggregation and aggregates can now be differentiated and quantified from CSF and serum samples. Multiple drug discovery programs interfere with this disease mechanism and have a good chance to become successful treatments. We are interested to see if convincing clinical results from misfolded tau directed approaches will be published soon. At the same time, scientific insights into the different forms of protein aggregates and their respective toxicity and involvement in the disease are accumulating.
As always, the highest score was 5, the lowest 1. We had 24 returned sheets of 61 delegates on site. We received a number of Emails after the conference, praising the comprehensive introductions by the chairmen, the short presentations, enlightening Q&A sessions, and the panel discussions, thank you!
Some feedback asked for other field of neurodegeneration outside of AD and we plan to focus the next event on all those other important indications after this year’s focus on AD. The service company and technology presentations were much appreciated, as were the diagnostic and clinical presentations / sessions.