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I am really grateful to the European Academy of Neurology for having granted my training research fellowship at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences of the University of Cambridge. During the final year of my residency in Neurology at the Sapienza University of Rome, I had the great honour to join the research group of Professor Mariagrazia Spillantini, who discovered - in 1997 - the presence of alpha-synuclein in Lewy bodies, the pathological hallmarks of Parkinson’s Disease.

It is my great pleasure to be invited to introduce myself to you in my new role as editor of EAN Pages, starting at our Congress in Oslo. I am a neurologist based in Sheffield in the UK, running busy general and neuromuscular clinics, with a research interest in motor neuron disease. First of all, I want to thank my predecessor and friend, Professor Elena Moro, for leading us to our current position of strength at EAN Pages.

This year’s Networking event during the 5th EAN congress took place at the  Oslo City Hall on Monday evening (July 1), where the attendees were impressed by the striking functional architecture and scale of the main hall. 

We congratulate the winners of the EAN Tournament during the 5th EAN Congress in Oslo. In two sessions, twelve young scientists presented their outstanding work.

Oslo hosted the general assembly of the resident and research fellow section (RRFS) of the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) during the 5th annual congress. The assembly received a broad participation from RRFS members who were interested in gaining insight into the annual report as well as the new Treasurer elections.

This year’s „Round table discussion” of the EAN Resident and Research Fellow Section (RRFS) was performed for the first time in form of two controversial topics with a “podium” discussion. The discussion was performed in a rather informal and open way between two experts providing a thorough discussion including pro and contra arguments based on individual experience as well as facts, allowing participants to ask questions in general as well as specific to their own situation and request advice.

This plenary symposium captured the overarching theme of the Congress. Professor Vezzani from Milan began by discussing neuroinflammatory pathways as treatment targets and biomarker candidates in epilepsy. There is evidence for oxidative stress and neuroinflammatory responses in various forms of epilepsy, from animal models and surgical resection specimens, with microglial activation, extravasation of albumin, and upregulation of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin 1-beta.

The Brain Prize Lecture: The prodromal cellular phase of Alzheimer’s disease (AD): toward a novel understanding of the disorder Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard Lecture: Do we need to reinvent translational cerebrovascular research? The Moritz Romberg Lecture: Translational neuroscience to improve outcomes for MND: are we winning?

The Charles Edouard Brown-Séquard Lecture at EAN 2019 was delivered by Prof. Ulrich Dirnagl, who had a chat with EAN eCommunciations Board Co-Chair, PD DR. Tim von Oertzen about his work.

Prof. Claudio Bassetti, President Elect of EAN, met with Prof. Bart de Strooper winner of the Lundbeck Foundation's Brain Prize 2018

Following her lecture at EAN 2019 in Oslo, Dr. Tom Jenkins, EAN eCommunciations board member and incoming editor-in-chief of EANpages, spoke to Prof. Dame Pamela Shaw following her Moritz Romberg Lecture at EAN 2019.

Prof. Hugh Willison from Glasgow discussed the pathogenesis of immune-mediated neuropathies, focusing especially on GBS. New inputs are the uptake of GM1 antibodies into spinal cord/motor roots, glycoarray techniques to detect antibodies against gangliosides -complexes, and neuropathies related to immune check-point inhibitors.

The joint special session of the corresponding members to EAN and AFAN was dedicated to “Intractable epilepsies”. The session was chaired by Prof. Jean-Michel Vallat (Limoges, France) and Prof. Erich Schmutzhard (Innsbruck, Austria).

Professor Schneider spoke about metabolic movement disorders using a treatment-based approach, with Wilson’s disease, PKAN, GLUT1-spectrum disorders, Gaucher and GBA-associated Parkinson’s disease as examples.

Biomarkers in degenerative dementia: news and views from the European Dementia with Lewy Body (DLB) Consortium This symposium was co-chaired by Flavio Nobilli, from Genova, and Dag Aarsland, from London.