"Lifelong Maintenance of Brain Health: Bridging the Gaps amongst the Young, the Old and those in Between"



Owing to declines in fertility and improvements in longevity, population aging has become one of the most important demographic events in the 21st century.  The number of people aged 65 and above is expected to triple to about 1.5 billion by 2050.  By then:
  • 33 countries are expected to have > 10 million people aged 60 years and older and 5 countries with > 50 million older people aged 60 years and older: China (437 million), India (324 million), United States (107 million), Indonesia (70 million) and Brazil (58 million). There are signs that population of Malaysia is starting to age. 
  • Malaysia is also expected to have a significant aging society in 2020 if the current trend of improved life expectancy is sustained.  As such, a shift in the leading causes of disease and death is expected.  
  • The susceptibility of the ageing society to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and conditions that affect mainly motor, rather than cognitive functions, such as Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has made these chronic degenerative diseases increasingly important.
Current therapeutics and interventions only target symptoms of these diseases but not even one targets the underlying course.


Description

The programs of the proposed Associate School, which revolves around 5 subthemes, will be conducted for a duration of 7 days. The subthemes were identified with the purpose of providing both fundamental and translational knowledge of neurological disorders related research to all participants. As part of our strategies in facilitating a holistic learning experience, each subtheme will be accompanied by talk(s), short forum/ mini projects and concurrent workshops. As such, there will be a total of 15 talks, 5 short forums and 6 workshops. A mini symposium will be held for participants to showcase their research outcomes. With the hope of forging successful future research collaboration, the symposium will be culminated with a motivational and knowledge café (structured conversational process). An excursion will be held on day 7.


Who should attend? 

Young aspiring researchers of neuroscience or relevant research fields (MBBS, MSc, and Ph.D.) from the Asia Pacific region.