Minimizing stroke damage in both infants and adults; taking advantages of the brain's own repair mechanisms; tracking thousands of genes at once to diagnose and treat disease. These are the laboratory advances that neurologists hope to bring into the clinic, and they are some of the highlights of the 127th Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association, to be held at the Marriott Marquis in New York City, October 13 to 16, 2002.

In addition to 11 platform talks and more than 250 poster presentations of research bulletins from the frontiers of neurology, the meeting will focus on several topics:

Regeneration and Degeneration--What factors help nerve cells grow normally or regenerate following injury, and what makes them degenerate and die in other situations? The medical implications of these questions--ranging from treating cerebral palsy to fighting the diseases of aging--will be discussed at the Presidential symposium on Monday morning.

The Plastic Brain--Not many years ago, neurologists believed that "plasticity"--the nervous system's ability to reorganize its internal connections--was reserved for children, whose nervous systems are still under construction. We now know that the adult brain is constantly reorganizing itself in response to injury, disease, or simply learning new things. Much of the credit for this understanding is due Columbia University Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel, and our Monday afternoon symposium on plasticity will begin with news from Kandel's groundbreaking research into the plasticity that underlies learning and memory.

Coming Soon, From a Laboratory Near You--Not so far from the clinic, basic neuroscientists are working to provide neurologists with better understanding and better tools to attack disorders of the brain and spinal cord. In the Tuesday afternoon Emerging Concepts symposium, presenters will discuss recent developments in basic science that will have important consequences for how neurologists diagnose, treat, and manage diseases. Similarly, in the Wednesday morning Neurotechnologies symposium, researchers will report on next-generation technologies, such as MRI and PET scans that probe deeper into the brain, as well as nanoscale methods for analyzing genes and molecules within cells.

Click here to learn more about the conference at the ANA website.