During last year’s Society for Neuroscience (SfN) meeting, the BrightFocus Foundation, (previously the American Health Assistance Foundation,) and The Internationale Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek held the third in a series of interactive workshops for both junior and senior scientists to discuss the emerging concepts in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Due to growing life expectancies, AD, along with other forms of dementia, are becoming increasingly important concerns and necessitate scientific discussions such as this to help further understand and develop therapies for this disease.

To celebrate the success of the workshop, Molecular Neurodegeneration, the official journal of the BrightFocus Foundation, is publishing a thematic series titled “Current concepts in Alzheimer’s Disease: molecules, models and translational perspectives”. Guest edited by Dr Bart Rutten and Professor Harry Steinbusch, this series comprises reviews from the teaching staff at the workshop, as a result of the discussions that occurred both during and subsequently to the event. As described in Dr Rutten’s and Professor Steinbusch’s Editorial, “The field of neuroscience research in AD has been evolving rapidly over the last few years”. These recent developments are summarised in the published review series.

The series includes an article looking at the effect of AD on the blood-brain barrier by Prof Joana Palha and associates. They discuss the effects of endothelial and epithelial cells that reduce the removal of toxic compounds from the brain during aging and AD. They also discuss the  increased permeability of brain barriers during AD which affects the ageing brain’s homeostasis.

In another article, Dr Cynthia A Lemere evaluates the development of both active and passive vaccines that are targeted to disrupt the modulation, prevention or aggregation of amyloid-β protein, hypothesised as a key player in the early pathogenesis of AD.

The Internationale Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek, the Alzheimer Forschung Initiative, the Ligue Européenne Contre la Maladie d’Alzheimer and the BrightFocus Foundation are pleased to announce the fourth edition of their three-day educational workshop, “Alzheimer Research from different perspectives.” Organized in collaboration with their scientific partners at the European Graduate School of Neuroscience (EURON). The meeting will precede the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) meeting in San Diego, and will run November 6^th – 8^th, 2013. For more information, please visit their website.

Molecular Neurodegeneration is an open access, peer-reviewed online journal that encompasses all aspects of neurodegeneration research at the molecular and cellular levels. To read the soon to be published articles in the series, as well as more articles on the molecular processes involved in the degeneration of the nervous system, please visit Molecular Neurodegeneration’s website, Facebook and Twitter pages and sign up to receive article alerts.