MILAN.- The new edition of “Preserving the Brain,” part of the “Human Brains” project dedicated since 2018 to neurosciences, focuses on the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. Organized in partnership with fifteen renowned neuroscience institutes from international universities and six Italian patient organizations and associations, “Preserving the Brain: A Call to Action” consists in a scientific conference (16 – 17 October 2024) and an exhibition (16 October 2024 – 7 April 2025) which will be accompanied by a series of meetings (November 2024 – April 2025) to be held at Fondazione Prada in Milan.

“Human Brains” is the result of an in-depth research process undertaken by Fondazione Prada and driven by a deep interest in understanding the human brain, the complexity of its functions and its centrality in human history. Developed by a scientific committee chaired by neurologist Giancarlo Comi, since 2020 the program resulted in a series of exhibitions, scientific conferences, public talks, and online and editorial activities.

Following the first two stages of the forum on neurodegenerative diseases, held in Milan and Shanghai in 2022 and 2023, this new edition aims to focus on the importance of prevention and early treatment of widespread and still incurable diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, and Multiple Sclerosis.

Neurodegenerative diseases are characterized in part by a series of modifiable risk factors, the correction of which would have major consequences on an individual and collective level. To protect ourselves from the increasing prevalence of these diseases, it is crucial to act on modifiable risk factors, take care of the environment, promote healthy lifestyles, implement educational activities, and engage all actors of society and political institutions. The impressive recent development of genetic and biological markers for all these diseases also allows to identify individuals who are at risk for a specific disease, and the activation of secondary prevention strategies that could include the implementation of specific therapies as early as in the preclinical stage of the disease.

For this reason, “Preserving the Brain: A Call to Action” sees the participation of leading research centers, academics, patient associations, and organizations that operate in the field of brain health, as well as representatives of institutions and the political sphere. The main goal is a productive exchange among different stakeholders to promote specific actions related to modifiable factors on neurodegenerative diseases, leading up to a “call to action” addressed to a wide population, especially the younger population as their stage of life is exactly when one starts building the future of their brain health.

As Miuccia Prada, President and Director of Fondazione Prada, states, “This new edition of ‘Preserving the Brain’ shows how necessary it is to create an even stronger dialogue between the scientific world and the public of a cultural institution like Fondazione Prada.

The themes of prevention and the active role of culture in this field concern everyone and specifically younger generations. It is therefore crucial to accompany scientific research and dissemination with awareness-raising activities and a program of concrete actions capable of influencing our behaviors, involving those who deal with neurodegenerative diseases on a daily basis, not only from a strictly medical perspective. We are pleased that this international forum has become, as we had hoped during the first edition, a recurring appointment that helps to connect research centers with each other and with a wider and more heterogeneous community.”

As Giancarlo Comi, Honorary Professor of Neurology at the Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan and Scientific Director of “Preserving the Brain: A Call to Action”, underlines, “The brain, and therefore neural functions, represent the defining and distinguishing element of human beings. For this reason, the Brain Health campaign, which has recently been promoted by international agencies in conjunction with scientific societies in this field, requires a strong endorsement by all. The neurodegenerative diseases are complex pathologies and are almost always a combination of various genetic and environmental factors. We have only recently begun to unravel this complex skein and have realized that some of the environmental causes are roots of the disease that we plant ourselves, both individually and as social and political choices. Prevention therefore becomes fundamental to both reduce the risk of disease and improve its progression. The conference will compare the latest research developments by encouraging debates among experts from different fields. The exhibition linked to the conference aims to extend the fundamental aspects of prevention to the entire community and intends to do so through collaboration with the international scientific community and patient organizations and associations. These actors will explore some of the common and specific issues of different neurodegenerative diseases, which will also be the subject of discussions and meetings throughout the duration of the exhibition. To effectively tackle neurodegenerative diseases, it is essential that the entire community, in all its facets, be involved.”

The fifteen international institutions involved in the “Preserving the Brain: A Call to Action” project are: German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) within the Helmholtz Association, Bonn, Germany; Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Ann Romney Center for Neurological Diseases, Boston, United States; Hôpital de la Pitié- Salpêtrière, Sorbonne University AP-HP, Neurology department and Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France; UniSR – Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy; Juntendo University Hospital, Neurology Department, Tokyo, Japan; Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden; Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Munich, Germany; Montreal Neurological Institute- Hospital, McGill University, Canada; Multiple Sclerosis Centre of Catalonia, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain; Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Neurology Department, Tianjin, China; UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, United States; University College London, United Kingdom; University Medical Centers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Weizmann Institute of Science, Revohot, Israel; Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, United States.

The meetings connected to the exhibition and focused on five neurodegenerative diseases will be promoted by organizations, patient associations and institutions devoted to supporting scientific research such as: AIMA Associazione Italiana Malattia di Alzheimer, AISM Associazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla, AISLA – Associazione Italiana Sclerosi Laterale Amiotrofica and AriSLA – Fondazione Italiana di ricerca per la Sclerosi Laterale Amiotrofica, Confederazione Parkinson Italia, and Fondazione LIRH Lega Italiana Ricerca Huntington.