The Invisible Link – dialogues between lab and clinic in neurodegenerative disorders
Date: Wednesday, 10th February, 2016, 21h00
Duration: ~2hrs, including 3 talks and activities with the audience.
Venue: Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Auditorium,
In support to Maratona da Saúde
Speakers: Durval Costa, Joaquim Silva
Hosts: Daniel Nunes, Liad Hollender
Registration is now open
Live streaming coming soon
Parkinson’s Diseases, Huntington’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis. Weâ??ve all heard of these conditions. We know that they are caused by neurodegeneration – death of certain populations of neurons in the brain. We know they are severely debilitating, incapacitating and incurable. We also know that they eventually lead to death.
What are we doing as a society to fight against these diseases? At «The invisible link – dialogues between lab and clinic in Neurodegenerative disorders», we decided to explore two approaches that may appear distinct, but are in fact tightly linked – basic and clinical research.
What is basic research? Basic research asks the why and the how. Its main goal is to expand human knowledge and find answers to fundamental questions such as – What is the universe made of? How did life begin? How does the brain work? Clinical research, on the other hand, focuses on patients and concentrates on developing solutions to outstanding needs and to preventing and curing disease. Clinical research seems to target everything we care about. It deals with issues that are urgent and relate to us in a very personal way. Why is it, then, that we pursue basic research at all? Is it really urgent to know what is the neural basis of emotions, or why do we need to sleep?
The answer is yes, for two reasons. The first is that one of the best things about being human is being able to understand the world we live in. The second reason for why we need answers to basic questions, is that we never know where they will lead us. There are many examples where the curiosity of scientists has led to results of significant applied potential. Curiosity that has led to inventions and cures.
To examine the relation between basic and clinical research, this event our speakers will show you some links between basic and clinical research, where basic research led to applications in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. The first speaker, Prof. Durval Costa, the head of the Nuclear Medicine Unit at Champalimaud Clinical Centre in Lisbon will talk about Nuclear Medicine and how radiopharmaceuticals were used from basic research to clinical applications. The second speaker, Dr. Joaquim Alves da Silva, will talk about past breakthroughs in medicine that would not have been possible without basic research and current basic research innovative tools in that might lead to the breakthroughs of the future.
â??People cannot foresee the future well enough to predict what’s going to develop from basic research. If we only did applied research, we would still be making better spears». Dr. George Smoot, 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics
REGISTRATION
This event will be held in support of Maratona da Saúde, an organisation which raises funds for scientific research with the goal of accelerating discoveries that can lead to innovative treatments for the cure of disease. This year they are targeting Neurodegenerative diseases.
Entrance is free and subject to availability. A 1 euro donation, at the event, for Maratona da Saúde would be highly appreciated.
Ticket reservations must be done through our Eventbrite website. We will announce soon when will they open.
Limited seats will be available to people without reservations on the event evening on a first come, first served basis.
People with reservations MUST arrive before 8.50pm on the evening of the event. After that, tickets will be given for people without reservations.
Live streaming will be available during the event at the following website: https://live.fccn.pt/champalimaud/ar