International Scientific Symposia

Leading academic medical schools co-sponsor with the Advocacy symposia that bring together experts in both basic scientific research and clinical discuss papers on their clinical experience with neuroacanthocytosis patients and on basic research into the role of the proteins that are not expressed or are mutated in neuroacanthocytosis patients. This work often focuses on the anomalies in the red blood cells of NA patients and the possible meaning this can have in understanding the pathway that leads to neuronal apoptosis and the resulting movement and cognitive problems.

The first symposium was organized in 2002 by Professor Adrian Danek in the idyllic setting of a monastery in Seeon, Bavaria. In 2005 the symposium was hosted by the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital and this was followed by a meeting in Kyoto in 2006 at the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine. The 2008 symposium was at the Institute of Neurology, University College London and The Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford. The Advocacy supports the publication of scholarly articles and text books arising from meetings.

Sponsors of these symposia have been the Fritz Thyssen, Stiftung, High Q Foundation, Margaret Kinross Foundation, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, Movement Disorder Society, Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Limited, Novartis AG, Sanofi-Synthlabo GmbH, Pfizer AG, Imperial College Genetics Therapies Centre and Glaxo Smith Kline.

The symposia have all been endorsed by the Movement Disorder Society.