2010 NF Conference

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Neurofibromatosis (NF) Conference has been organized by the Children's Tumor Foundation annually since 1985. With its roots in a workshop-style gathering of a group called the 'NF Consortium', the NF Conference has grown and is now recognized as the largest and the premier annual gathering of international NF researchers and physicians. Two-hundred and eighty NF researchers and clinicians from around the world attended the 2009 NF Conference. A major contributor to this growth has been the significant advances made in NF research in recent years and particularly the advances into clinical trials and drug therapy development. Traditionally a forum for research information exchange and consensus building, in recent years the NF Conference has also become the principal international forum for reporting on the neurofibromatosis preclinical therapeutic pipeline and the now expanding arena of neurofibromatosis clinical trials. The 2010 NF Conference is themed Back to the Future and in structure and layout it returns to a large extent to the workshop-based model from which the Conference originally evolved. The goal of the 2010 NF Conference will be to evaluate how far NF research has come, and what are the major remaining challenges and controversies. This them will be explored in a variety of session models over four days. General sessions will focus on specific topics and themes in NF and review them through presentations from top-level researchers spanning from basic research questions to translational and clinical issues. Panel and Roundtable sessions will take on provocative topics and be driven by discussion and audience participation. Abstract platform and poster sessions are laid out to give ample attention to a broader array of new research particularly to younger investigators. Recognizing the important growing role for this Conference in serving as a forum for the NF clinical community, through the Foundation's NF Clinic Network, there will be a one-day workshop preceding the main Conference session that is targeted at NF clinic coordinators, nurses and genetic counselors. Overall, it is intended that the 2010 NF Conference will bring yet another fresh perspective to the NF community at large, while remaining the premier annual event in the calendar for NF research and clinical care information. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Children's Tumor Foundation NF Conference has had a fruitful history since its inception in 1985, and it plays a lynchpin role as the premier annual gathering of researchers and clinicians in the neurofibromatosis community. The meeting is a forum for research information exchange and discussion for neurofibromatosis researchers and clinicians from around the world, and has traditionally fostered collaboration, consensus building, and advances in translational research culminating in clinical trials. Meeting attendance has doubled in recent years from 140 attendees in 2005 to 280 attendees in 2009, driven largely by an expanding clinical agenda component as the neurofibromatosis field progresses bench to bedside.