Welcome to ICN 2010

Excerpt

As the President of the Organizing Committee of the XVIIth International Congress of Neuropathology (ICN 2010), I am delighted to be given the opportunity to introduce this issue of ACTA NEUROPATHOLOGICA, to be distributed to participants of ICN 2010. In addition to the book of abstracts, to be printed in a supplementary issue of BRAIN PATHOLOGY, the present series of review articles illustrates well the meeting and its scope. An ICN should be dear to all neuropathologists, as this global event brings together the research and medical-diagnostic aspects of the field in one place only every 4 years. Originally, we expected to attract an attendance of up to 800–1,000 researchers, medical specialists and industry representatives; however, the global crisis seems to have a more profound impact on the number of registrants than we anticipated. This hurts in particular, as we decided to design ICN 2010 as a low-budget, non-profit event, in order to keep costs for attendees as affordable as possible, in particular for young scientists, students and trainees and those from economically disadvantaged countries. Fortunately, however, there is no impact on the quality of scientific presentations and discussions, as also testified by the contributions to this issue of ACTA NEUROPATHOLOGICA. …