|
Dear ANA members, Sometimes, connections just happen—between ideas, people, disciplines. Some places they happen more than others. At an ANA Annual Meeting a few years back, I saw a poster presentation about a new use of a technology for studying wakefulness and sleep. I got to talking with the presenter, Dr. Nigel Pedersen, who was working with Dr. Clifford Saper (current editor-in-chief of Annals of Neurology) and Dr. Patrick Fuller. We combined their technique with some of the work in my lab, which ended up contributing in an important way to understanding how increased wakefulness contributes to aspects of Alzheimer’s disease. The interaction resulted in NIH grant funding, foundation funding, and a postdoctoral project for someone in my lab, as well as a publication in Science this year. Every year, I look forward to attending the ANA Annual Meeting to start new collaborations and introduce new generations to the possibilities that emerge at a meeting like ours. More than most professional gatherings, the ANA Annual Meeting is especially conducive to making connections like this. It offers a network across neurological and neuroscience subspecialties, and it’s just the right size for ideas to take off. It’s small enough that you can have private meetings if you like, but large enough to have access to a huge range of researchers doing the most exciting work out there. As I’ve become more senior, I’ve used the ANA Annual Meeting as a place to recruit, collaborate, and expand connections for my department with leaders and chairs from across the world—many of whom I met for the first time at this meeting.
Warm Regards, David M. Holtzman, MD President, American Neurological Association Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and Chairman Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine |