The 9th edition of the FENS Neuroscience Forum will take place for the first time in Milan, Italy, between 5th and 9th June2014, hosted by the Italian Society of Neuroscience (SINS). In terms of importance, FENS Forum is the second scientific event in the
world dedicated to the brain, probably the most important in our continent.
At the Forum 2014, attended by more than 5,500
neuroscientists from around the world, data on all conditions that affect the nervous system will be presented and discussed: from addictions to drugs
epilepsy, mental disorders by brain tumors, trauma neurodegenerative diseases,
from autism to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, right up to the ethical
issues related to brain research.
"A third of Europeans, 179 million people total, have suffered in his life of at least one brain disease, if we consider all the existing ones, the most disabling up to the more mild, such as anxiety. The impact of these diseases on the economy of all European countries is a real ticking time bomb primed, especially for what concerns the progressive aging of the population," explained Monica DiLuca, who will take office as President of the Federation of European Neuroscience during the next FENS Forum 2014. "It is a great honor that the FENS Forum takes place in Italy. For five days, Milan will become the world capital of studies on the brain".
The diseases of the nervous system kill less than cardiovascular disease or cancer, but have the highest health care costs for the EU - 800 billion euros per year - due to the long-term disability they may cause.
But despite the devastating impact of brain-related diseases and the efforts of the scientific community in Europe, the funding allocated to research in these fields are still too small. We need much more effort than the present to qualitative leaps in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases of the brain and, more generally, of the nervous system. FENS, in collaboration with the European Brain Council and its partners around the world, supports the need to identify brain research as a priority for all political agendas, both nationally and internationally.
"Through centuries of scientific tradition and great schools, and an explosion in the last two decades of the last century, Italy has created a community of neuroscientists of absolute importance, enriched today by a crowd of young people who are looking for a motivated and very valid accommodation," says Marina Bentivoglio, chairman of the SINS, who will open the event scheduled for July 5th, followed by speakers Pierfrancesco Majorino, Minister of Social Affairs and Culture of the Health of the Municipality of Milan, Armando De Crinito, Deputy General Manager of "Productive Activities, Research and Innovation" of the Lombardy Region, and Marian Joels, current President of FENS.
