The international symposium on brain, health, and aging was held in May 9-10, 2019 in Beijing, China. The symposium was attended by nearly 100 researchers from Karolinska Institutet (KI), Boston University, University of Kentucky, Institute of Psychology at Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and several universities in China. The aim of this symposium was to expand the existing Sino-Sweden Network for Aging Research.
The symposium included several theme sessions that involve lifestyle factors for brain aging and dementia, imaging analysis of aging brain and cognitive heath, and multidomain interventions on cognitive aging. Keynote speeches were delivered by Professor Laura Fratiglioni from ARC, Professor Rhoda Au from Boston University, Professor Jianping Jia from Beijing Xuanwu Hospital of the Beijing Capital Medical University, and Professor Tianzi Jiang from Institute of Automation, CAS. A special evening session was arranged to discuss about the career development of junior researchers, during which senior researchers kindly shared their experiences.
In addition, a special roundtable session was organized to discuss about the E-health for research on healthy aging brain as well as international collaboration and data sharing.
In May 13-14, 2019, the Sino-Sweden Joint research project workshop was held in Shandong Provincial Hospital affiliated to Shandong University in Jinan, Shandong, China. This workshop was aimed at summarizing the ongoing Sino-Sweden joint research project on early detection and intervention of dementia supported by China Ministry of Sciences and Technology, the National Nature Science Foundation of China (principle investigator, Professor Yifeng Du), and the Swedish Research Council (principle investigator, Dr Chengxuan Qiu).
The workshop focused on three themes that involve 1) multimodal interventions on dementia and disability in China, 2) sleep problems and brain aging, and 3) imaging assessments of structural brain changes in aging. Collaborative researchers from Karolinska Institutet, Shandong University, Institute of Psychology at CAS, and Jining Medical University attended the workshop.
The workshop participants also visited the research field of the project in Yanlou Town, Yanggu county in west Shandong Province, where the multimodal interventions to delay dementia and disability in rural China (MIND-CHINA) are ongoing.
