5th Iberian Congress on Prions, Barcelona
The next 28 and 29 November 2016, Barcelona takes over Lisbon and organizes the 5th Iberian Congress on prions. This annual meeting brings together researchers and professionals involved in the study of prion diseases both from the medical and veterinary fields in the Iberian Peninsula. It also features the participation of researchers focused on studying the structure of these peculiar proteins.
Like every year the event will include the participation of renowned international researchers. In this edition Dr. Giuseppe Legname (SISSA, Trieste, Italy) will discuss the relationship between prion protein and alpha-synucleina and Dr. Inga Zerr Fran Llorens (DZNE, Göttingen, Germany) will talk about the usefulness of the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid in patients with dementia.
Regarding the veterinary field, Dr. Sylvie Benestad, a veterinary neuropathologist form the Norweigan Veterinary Institute in Oslo, Norway will attend the meeting. Dr. Benestad, known for having published the first description of the atypical variant of sheep scrapie (Nor98) will give a talk about the recent detection of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) cases in European cervidae (a subject recently discussed in this blog: Read about prions in European Wildlife).
The event will take place at the Casa de la Convalescència in the art nouveaou architectural compound of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau in Barcelona.
IRTA-CReSA participates in the scientific committee of the event since the CReSA has the PRIOCAT Laboratory. This is a laboratory which has ISO 17025 accreditation for the diagnosis of animal prion diseases, which performs on behalf of the Government of Catalonia. It also develops a research line focused on the study of the transmission barrier between species of prion diseases as well as the pathogenesis of spontaneous animal prion diseases. The access to IRTA-CReSA’s biosafety level 3 facilities enables us to carry out in vivo experiments with animal models (mice) to study prion diseases.
The deadline for abstracts submission is October 15th 1st, 2016.
The program includes the participation of the “Asociación española de familiares de Enfermedades priónicas” (Spanish Family association of patients with prion diseases).
