International Association of Neural Restoration Annual Conference (IANRAC)

Dear Sir or Madam:

The  1st International Association of Neural Restoration Annual Conference  (IANRAC) sponsored by International Association of Neural Restoration  (IANR) and co-sponsored by Beijing Hongtianji Neuroscience Academy  (BHNA), Taishan Medical University Neuroscience Institute, Chinese  Journal of Reparative and Reconstructive Surgery will be held on May  15-18, 2008 in Beijing, People’s Republic of China. Therefore, on behalf of the IANRAC Organizing Committee, we sincerely invite you to attend the annual conference.

Neural  regeneration, repair and restoration of function is one of the toughest  challenges in neuroscience. Recently, neuroscience has developed  rapidly and new achievements are constantly emerging and some  breakthroughs have been made. All these have shaped a unique and  independent scope of research and a brand new field of knowledge, thus  forming a new branch of science – Neural Restoration. With the research  advance in fields within neural regeneration, repair and restoration of  function, there has been a radical change in the traditional concept  that those damages cannot be repaired because there is no effective  method. At present, the door has been opened for possible effective  therapy.

Neural  Restoration uses transplantation of tissues or cells, bioengineering,  and biological, physical, pharmaceutical or chemical methods of  intervention to facilitate regeneration and restoration of destroyed or  damaged nerve. As a result of intervention, the anatomical projections  and circuits are restored, the conduction of signals improved, and  finally the target of recovery and (or) restoration of neural functions  is reached, which are based on previous neuroanatomical structure and  function. The therapeutic method of neural restoration covers traumatic  injuries, degeneration, ischemia & hypoxia, demyelination, chronic  cerebrovascular lesions, movement disorders, intoxication and other  nerve damage caused by physical factor, hereditary and congenital or  developmental lesions and other degenerative changes and damages.

It  is the arduous historical responsibility of the international  scientific community to commit themselves to continuous innovating and  speeding up the progress of researches in this field. It is also what  patients of various nervous diseases have been dreaming of and hoping  for. Therefore, we must enhance the intensity of the related theoretical  research, constantly upgrade and promote interventional strategies,  gradually improve the effectiveness of clinical patients’ neural  functional recovery. We firmly believe that through the generation after  generation unrelenting efforts and constant exploration by neural  restoration researchers, people can finally cure degenerative diseases  and damages of nervous system clinically.

In  order to facilitate a coordinative effort to improve of both basic and  clinical researches in neural restoration, enhance scientific  international exchanges, the International Association of Neural  Restoration (IANR) was registered at Hong Kong Special Administrative  Region, People’s Republic of China  in October of 2007. Many prominent experts in this field from around  the world will take part in this conference to give lectures and  participate in general academic exchanges. We hope it can create a broad  professional platform of academic exchange for global basic scientific  researchers and clinicians working in neural restoration field,  including neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics, rehabilitation,  pediatrics, physiotherapy, neural transplantation, hyperbaric oxygen,  ophthalmology and so on,  thus  it will promote the development of neural restoration together, explore  more innovative and effective interventional strategies, make more  contributions to human medical science and then finally benefit the  patients with neurological diseases.

We  are sincerely looking forward to more clinicians, experts and friends  to participate the research on neural restoration; we are earnestly  expecting to meet you in Beijing during spring of 2008 and working  together to make progress hand in hand!

The 1st IANRAC Organizing Committee

                                             February 21, 2008