Collaboration, workshops, and symposia

Readers may have noticed the presence of a March issue of Neurology® Genetics that added to the customary bimonthly publication schedule. The March issue is a supplement focused on research presented by the International Stroke Genetics Consortium (ISGC). Genetics of stroke is paradigmatic for the challenges of analyzing polygenic risk in highly complex disease phenotypes with significant environmental and lifestyle confounders. The consortium brings together stroke neurologists and geneticists that collaborate to achieve sample sizes and diverse cohorts to define genetic risk for a number of stroke subtypes. The supplementary issue published proceedings of the 19th and 20th ISGC workshops. The ISGC workshops have been held on a semiannual basis since the first meeting in 2007. The Department of Neurology at the University of Utah sponsored a workshop in 2014, and I could personally witness that members of ISGC are highly interactive and committed to sharing of data. In addition to the excitement for discovery, the group also shared in a desire to sample the local surroundings, including regional cuisine, hiking, and skiing. Neurology: Genetics recently published the proceedings from another group of geneticists. This research conference dealt with the phenotypic diversity associated with mutations in the ATP1A3 gene. The ATP1A3-related disease conference presented a summary of findings, whereas the ISGC proceedings will allow the reader to access individual abstracts. It is the hope of the editors that these types of collaborations of the journal with genetics consortia will be mutually beneficial and provide platforms for the rapid dissemination of new research findings.