About the Summit

The inaugural State of the Science Summit (SOSS) focused on Diagnosis of Trauma-Related Brain Disorders with a major focus on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Based on a prioritized list of foundation translational research gaps from the Brain Trauma Blueprint Executive Committee, the first summit explored the state of the science in diagnosis of trauma-related brain disorders. During the summit, thought-leaders will moderate sessions addressed the issues with defining these disorders by their symptom presentation and discuss the need to create a new taxonomy of disease for these conditions enabled by deeper understanding of the underlying biology of post-trauma sequelae and novel technological advances.

Attendees worked to build consensus around knowledge gaps and discussed strategies to move the field forward by leveraging the combined intellectual resources of the full community. The summit served as a launchpad for ongoing Working Groups to develop evidence-based strategies on how to fill those gaps, identify new gaps as others are filled, and disseminate these findings back to the community at large.

The consensus document will be shared later this year.

The Rationale

The trauma-related brain disorders research community has identified a need to establish a mechanism-based taxonomy for these conditions to advance biomarker discovery as well as diagnosis and therapeutic development. A shift from a syndromic classification system to a mechanistic one necessitates a review of the current scientific knowledge, adoption of new scientific models, and identification of research and knowledge gaps. The SOSS aims to bring together multidisciplinary stakeholders with deep scientific and clinical expertise to address this pressing need.

Format

The State of the Science Summits are designed as 2-day retreats for 100 to 200 stakeholders to come together to realize true impact.  The stakeholders will encompass a broad swath of the community from academic institutions to government agencies, foundations supporting translational research, and industry.

Each summit will lead to the development of working groups to address the areas identified as needing additional follow-up. These working groups will refine the landscape work done by the Scientific Planning Committee prior to the Summit that will be presented to and further informed by all summit attendees.  The working groups will develop and vet a strategic list of next steps in their specific area that can then be used by the community for conducting or funding future research.

Our Partners