This blog entry was written by Dr. Kim Hunter-Schaedle and posted by Garrett Gleeson.
In just under a week’s time, the Children’s Tumor Foundation 2010 NF Conference kicks off in Baltimore. This year should see an attendance of close to 300 clinicians and scientists from around the world convening to share the latest developments in their neurofibromatosis research. The meeting is not open to the lay community, but through this blog and a series of short filmed interviews from the conference floor, our staff will keep you up to date on all the exciting research reported.
This year’s NF Conference theme Back to the Future will celebrate the significant progress we have made in NF research in the past few years, but also focus in on the challenges that remain. The progress made in NF research has been impressive. Looking back, at the 2005 NF Conference, there were no talks on clinical trials. In 2010, we have an entire afternoon focused on the major ongoing clinical trials, with additional clinical trials presented throughout the meeting. The same is true of preclinical drug testing – almost absent from the agenda just a few years ago – which now percolates through the entire meeting. CTF has contributed to this progress, through the past few years’ implementation of our 2006 ‘Strategic Plan to Accelerate Neurofibromatosis Research to the Clinic.’ Miraculously, by the end of 2010 we should have set all five areas in motion, including: funding preclinical drug testing (ongoing through our Drug Discovery Initiative Awards since 2006 and NF Preclinical Consortium since 2008); establishing an NF Clinic Network (established 2007, now 42 clinics and growing); funding pilot clinical trials (to date two have been funded); establishing a Neurofibromatosis Patient Registry and BioBank (to launch in 2010) and identifying new NF biomarkers (ongoing through our various funding awards and to be expanded via the Biobank). Of course we never forget the value of ‘discovery’ research, and this year includes many presentations from junior investigators (many funded through CTF’s Young Investigator Award program), all the way up to the thought leaders in the field (many of whom were at one time YIA recipients!).
Follow the blog over the coming week for 2010 NF Conference previews, and of course for ‘live’ updates during the meeting itself!
