This year, the International Neurotrauma Society (INTS) Symposium was held in Toronto, Canada on August 11th-16th. The conference programming featured a remarkable showcase of presentations by Safar Center faculty members and trainees.

Our faculty gave four plenary presentations. Dr. Corina Bondi (Bondi and Kline labs pictured bottom right) presented a plenary lecture titled “Interaction of Brain Trauma and Chronic Unpredictable Stress on Cognition, Anxiety and Markers of Neurotransmission and Neuroinflammation.” Dr. Amy Wagner presented a plenary lecture titled “Post-Traumatic Epilepsy: Personal Biology, Clinical Predictors, and Disability Burden.” Dr. Hulya Bayir presented a breakout lecture “Oxidative Lipid Signaling in Neuronal Death Programs in Brain Trauma,” and Dr. Patrick Kochanek presented a plenary lecture titled “Optimizing the Chance for a Future Therapeutic Breakthrough in the Golden Age of TBI Research.”

Jeff Cheng gave a presentation on “Optimizing Environmental Enrichment to Model Preclinical Neurorehabilitation.” Dr. Samuel Poloyac presented a talk titled “Moving from Disease Target to Lead Compound: Examples of in 20-HETE Inhibitor Drug Development,” and Dr. Philip Empey spoke on “Pharmacokinetic Modeling and Neurometabolomics to Ensure Target Engagement.” Timothy Craine, Dr. Bondi’s visiting Bath Univ (England) student, gave a data blitz talk titled “Multimodal assessment of behavioral flexibility after frontal brain trauma: beneficial effects of milnacipran.” Several Safar Center researchers also participated in several panel sessions (Bondi, Clark, de la Tremblaye, Kochanek, and Poloyac).

In addition to these plenary and panel presentations by faculty and researchers, trainees and faculty presented 22 abstracts. Safar trainees Anna Iouchmanov (Bondi student) received a diversity fellowship, and Isabel Bleimeister (Kline student) received a travel award.

The meeting also marked a very special transition in leadership for the National Neurotrauma Society. It marked the end of Dr. Anthony Kline’s tenure as the president of the society, and the beginning of Dr. Amy Wagner’s tenure as president. Both Dr. Kline and Dr. Wagner are University of Pittsburgh Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation professors, and Safar Center Associate Directors.