Conference Will Enhance Insight Into Cerebrovascular Disease

Cincinnati’s reputation as a major hub for stroke research will be highlighted next week when it hosts the Princeton Conference on Cerebrovascular Disease, the premier and oldest academic stroke and cerebrovascular disease conference in the world.

The UC College of Medicine and UC Health will host the conference next Thursday through Saturday, May 17-19, at the Cincinnati Hilton Netherland Plaza. This will be Cincinnati’s first time to host the conference, which began in 1954 in Princeton, N.J., and is held every two years in May (Stroke Awareness Month).

Supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the conference will bring together 160 stroke physicians and scientists, including most of the leading stroke researchers in North America and some from Europe. Attendance is by invitation only.

Conference organizers are Joseph Broderick, MD, Albert Barnes Voorheis Professor and chair of neurology at UC, and Dawn Kleindorfer, MD, professor of neurology and vascular neurology division director. Broderick is also research director of the UC Neuroscience Institute, a consortium of nine disease-focused centers. Joe Clark, PhD, professor of neurology, is the conference’s basic science coordinator.

"The Princeton Conference has a greater than half-century history as a forum for the best stroke investigators,” says Kleindorfer. "In the field of cerebrovascular disease, there is no other forum for this type of scientific exchange over such a wide variety of topics.”

"It’s not a typical meeting where people talk for an hour and then someone asks questions for two minutes,” adds Broderick. "Basically, you talk for 10 minutes and then people will argue the question for the next 15 or 20. You have more interaction, and that’s what I think makes it especially interesting and fun.”

Randy Seeley, PhD, Donald C. Harrison Endowed Chair and director of the Cincinnati Diabetes and Obesity Center, will give the keynote lecture on opening night. Titled "How obesity went to our heads:  CNS regulation of energy balance,” his presentation will explore the science of obesity, which has a large impact on stroke and cardiovascular disease.

Over the following two days, the program will be divided into nine scientific sessions of 80 minutes each plus two 20-minute "controversy” sessions, which will feature "pro” and "con” speakers followed by 15 minutes of discussion.

"The emphasis is on energetic discussion and cross-fertilization of the most recent cutting-edge research among basic and clinical scientists rather than data presentation,” says Kleindorfer. "From those discussions, the opportunity exists to develop new ideas and perspectives about where stroke research has been and where it will go.”