Neurodegenerative Diseases – a Scientific, Medical, Health Care, and Political Challenge - First International Conference with Clinicians and Genome Researchers in Berlin
Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s chorea, and Parkinson's disease are counted among the neurodegenerative diseases. In these still incurable diseases, the nerve cells progressively die and mental decline, severe motor disorders, and the loss of various physical functions lead, over the course of several years, to death.
The cause of a variety of neurodegenerative diseases is a combination of genetic disposition and acquired disturbances in protein metabolism and in protein degradation that lead to the deposit of insoluble protein fragments in the nerve cells, triggering their death, as is the case in the most common neurodegenerative disease, Alzheimer’s disease. According to scientists’ estimates, alone in the US, approximately 4.5 million individuals are affected and, in the European Union, almost 5 million individuals are affected by Alzheimer’s and other dementia. Prof. Erich Wanker, one of the conference organizers and a genome researcher at the Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin Buch, pointed out that molecular biological relationships are playing an ever more important role in disease etiology. This approach that researchers call “Systems Biology” research also includes the research of gene products (i.e., proteins) and their interactions. From functional genomics research, scientists and clinicians hope to identify disease-related genes and their proteins and to decode their functions in the organism. Furthermore, from the insights gained, they also hope to develop therapies which directly intervene at the molecular level of disease genesis.
Against the background of an increasingly aging population in the Western industrial countries, neurodegenerative diseases, which usually occur later in life, are gaining increasing significance. Scientists estimate that some 20 percent of people over 80 years of age will suffer from dementia, and in the group of 90 years and older, the rate will be more than one-third (i.e., circa 35 per cent). Neurodegenerative diseases inflict great suffering, not only for the patient but also for their families who often take care of them over several years. Such disorders also are a challenge for the health care system since costs of patient care runs in the billions. The current conference represents the first time that the Max DelbrückCenter for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin Buch has hosted an international conference with genome researchers and clinicians from Europe, Japan, Canada, and the US on neurodegenerative diseases. Organizers are the MDC, the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the University of Bonn under the umbrella of the National Genome Research Network (NGFN).
Barbara Bachtler
Press and Public Affairs
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC)
Berlin-Buch
Robert-Rössle-Straße 10
13125 Berlin
Germany
Phone.: +49 (0) 30 94 06 - 38 96
Fax: +49 (0) 30
94 06 - 38 33
e-mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de
