Edito

A meeting held last November addressed some “unmet medical needs” in neurological diseases. More than the subtitle of a scientific program, unmet medical needs are a real issue in the management of patients. While an adapted therapy is of course the ultimate medical need, many other concerns can characterize the course of a disease and, therefore, represent a potential point on which to act in order to improve patients' lives. Adapted solutions may exist or be developed but require dialog between clinicians and other proponents of the biomedical community –researchers, companies. Not only such interactions should benefit patient care, but reciprocally, they provide information to researchers about some aspects of nervous system diseases that are precious in further developing models of the latters.

This is on the basis of this observation that new actions such as “Unmet medical needs” have been inserted into the new Interreg project of the Neurex network. Called “Interneuron”, this project will last until mid 2022. Aimed at supporting the transfer of knowledge & technology, it includes other types of new actions detailed in the current newsletter. Such a project would not be possible without the funding authorities and all the partners (listed inside) which have trusted us in successfully supporting neuroscience in our transborder region. The financial support of Interreg has allowed to build a strong network over the last 2 decades, a story which had begun with the Eltem program raised by Prof Heinrich Reichert in 2001. We had the deep sorrow to hear that Heinrich passed away last June. But he leaves behind him a significant legacy, with a lively network that goes on.

The current project aims at inserting additional links in our neuroscience chain for the benefit of research & therapies. The electronic format of this newsletter is part of the changes between the current and previous project: you can download all issues on our website which will as before inform you about coming events or zoom on specific teams in our network. In this issue, the team of Dr Tuan Leng Tay (BrainLinks Brain tools, University of Freiburg) will open this series with a focus on microglia. Last but not least, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New year 2020 !

PP