European Stroke Network to Team Up with Canadian Stroke Network
Under the leadership of ESN coordinators Stephen Meairs and Ulrich Dirnagl, and the CEO and Scientific Director of the Canadian Stroke Network (CSN) Antoine Hakim, the world’s two largest research networks devoted solely to stroke have initiated consultations about novel ways of collaboration across the Atlantic. The Canadian Stroke Network is an independent nonprofit corporation that was established with the help of the Canadian government in 1999; it incorporates more than 100 researchers at 24 universities at present. The European Stroke Network was funded by the European Union in 2008; it coordinates the research efforts of 29 institutions in 13 countries. Antoine Hakim has been on the ESN Scientific Advisory Board since its inception.
As a first formal step of collaboration, a joint symposium of the European Stroke Network and the Canadian Stroke Network will take place in Ottawa, Canada, at the Canadian Stroke Congress (October 2-4, 2011). The special emphasis of this joint symposium is on research cooperation between the two organizations. Guest speakers from the European Stroke Network have also been integrated into the program of the Congress to provide wide dissemination of ESN research activities. This initial research cooperation will attempt to demonstrate the immense potential for further collaborative efforts between Europe and Canada.
Welcome to the Homepage of the European Stroke Network
The European Stroke Network (ESN) is a collaborative 
effort of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program that brings together researchers, government, industry, the non-profit sector, and patient group associations. This network puts Europe at the forefront of stroke research through its multi-disciplinary research program, high quality training for European scientists and clinicians, and national and global partnerships.
New Experimental Data Raise Hopes for Stroke Therapy
While preventing stroke-induced damage to the brain with drugs has proved to be an unattainable goal so far, a newly published study (Ruscher et al., Brain, January 28, 2011) suggests that part of the lost brain function can be restored by pharmacological activation of cerebral sigma-1 receptors several days after the ischemic event. The novel therapeutic concept grew out of the observation that keeping rats in a stimulating environment after experimental stroke leads to a significantly better functional recovery than tranquil conventional housing. In collaboration with scientists from the United States, researchers of the European Stroke Network at Lund University under the leadership of Tadeusz Wieloch have been able to demonstrate that sigma-1 receptors play an important role in the improved recovery of sensorimotor function associated with enriched environment.
Documentary about ESN Available for Viewing on Facebook
To raise awareness of health research supported by the European Commission’s FP7 program, the COMED consortium has been commissioned by the EC to produce state-of-the art documentaries for the general public about ten auspicious EU-funded research projects. The European Stroke Network has been selected as one of the organizations that are pursuing a visionary approach to contemporary research on a major disease. The documentary explaining representative examples of ESN research has been published recently on Facebook and can be viewed here.
The COMED project should help bridge the gap between the abstract world of science and the lives of individual European citizens by capturing the highly complex scientific process as well as the daily challenges of research work on film.
ESN Authors Analyze Strategies of Primary Stroke Prevention
In view of the immense burden of stroke on society, stroke prevention is an important public concern. A significant body of evidence supports many primary and secondary prevention strategies, but the actual contribution of individual risk factors remains controversial. In an electronic publication ahead of print (Endres at al., Eur Heart J, February 1, 2011), Matthias Endres and colleagues review current knowledge about the role of the main modifiable risk factors of stroke: blood pressure, lipids, and heart disease. In their analysis, the authors point out that current strategies of primary prevention emphasize the absolute risk of cardiovascular disease rather than individual risk factors.
Read more: Endres et al.ESN Scientists Publish Educational Video in JoVE
Conflicting experimental findings represent a major obstacle to the advancement of stroke research. Ulrich Dirnagl and colleagues were among the first to recognize the importance of standardized experimentation and provided detailed guidelines for its implementation in scientific publications. In their latest effort, they took an entirely different approach and produced an educational video about the intraluminal middle cerebral artery occlusion in mice, probably the most frequently employed model of human stroke (Engel et al., J Vis Exp, 47, 2011).
Read more: Mouse MCAO in JoVE