Abstract

Over the last two decades the Barriers of the CNS Gordon Research Conference has played an integral role in bringing together, maintaining, and shaping a multidisciplinary international group of scientists and clinicians that have an interest in brain barriers in health and disease. One enduring characteristic of this conference has been to bring together a broad spectrum of ever-evolving disciplines that, working together, can yield significant advances in the study of brain barriers and the translation of that knowledge into clinical practice. With this in mind, the theme of the 2020 conference is "Translating Basic Knowledge About Brain Barriers into Treatments for Neurological Disorders". As such, the conference will highlight experimental models of brain barriers that can yield therapeutic insights, methods of delivery of small and large molecules to targets in the brain, effects of disease on brain barriers, and the influence of fluid flows on transport within the CNS. The conference will also address recently discovered barriers of the CNS, as well as barriers that have been understudied over the years, yet still important in health and disease. The conference will be ideal for junior scientists to discuss their work with the leaders in the field, in either poster or short podium presentations. Ample discussion time following each presentation is scheduled and many opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings will allow the conference to provide a unique framework for brainstorming and promoting new ideas and novel collaborations.