Imperial research group hosts first international conference on brain injury

Bringing together world-renowned scientists and clinicians across many disciplines helps foster key collaborations for the future.

This July the Neurotrauma Group, based in Imperial’s Department of Medicine, hosted the first Frontiers in Traumatic Brain Injury conference. Over two days, more than 150 clinicians and scientists attended the conference, which took place at the South Kensington Campus.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in people under 40, with survivors facing severe and chronic cognitive, psychological, and physical problems. There is a desperate need for effective translational research in this area to improve the chance of survival and good recovery.

Prof David Sharp, Principal Investigator of the Neurotrauma Group, said, “We really highlight the wide range of fantastic, cutting-edge scientific research that is happening in this area.” Organisers Drs Lucia Li and Pete Jenkins, who are both clinical research fellows in the group, also pointed out that an important motivation behind organising the conference was to bring together scientists and clinicians working in the field. “TBI is such a complex disease, with great variation in pathology and presentation,” said Dr Lucia Li. “Collaborations between different clinical and scientific disciplines have the potential to be hugely fruitful.”

Invited lecturers covered a broad range of topics, such as neurodegeneration after injury, the use of big data in TBI trials, brain injury in sports and neuropsychological consequences of TBI. It also covered new treatment potentials and the social consequences of TBI. In addition, the conference featured two debates; the first on the controversial topic of compulsory helmet use in cycling, and another on whether it was still appropriate to use the word ‘concussion’.

“We really wanted to discuss these ideas in an engaging novel way,” said Dr Pete Jenkins, “our speakers were as entertaining as they were informative, and the audience contributed some excellent questions.” A live video stream of the Concussion debate, filmed by Neuro Central, can be viewed below:

The organisers would like to thank: St Mary’s Development fund, Leigh Day, Irwin Mitchell, Guarantors of Brain and the Drake Foundation for their kind sponsorship and support of the conference.

Follow us on Twitter to find out details of the next conference.

Photos from the conference can be viewed on Flickr.