The 7th IBRO-MENA International Workshop (virtual) on food and brain health and how to write books and articles by Springer Nature was officially kicked off on Wednesday and will continue until Thursday evening. 

This event is organised by Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), under the auspices of the Food Science and Nutrition (FSN) Department at the College of Agricultural & Marine Sciences (CAMS) at SQU, in association with the Ageing & Dementia Research Group (ADRG) at SQU. 

This event is supported by International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO-MENA), College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, SQU, Springer Nature, Nutritional Neurosciences Book Series by Springer and Food and Brain Research Foundation, India. The main aim of the event is to create an awareness on the impact of food, nutrition on brain health, through whole life and updates on neuroethics and how to write books and articles. Around 32 international speakers from the US, Oman, Europe, Morocco, Egypt, Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Qatar and India are sharing their research experiences. 

There are more than 200 participants registered for this event. The organisers for this event are Dr Mohamed Essa, associate professor, FSN, CAMS, SQU, Buthaina al Bulushi and Zainab al Mohammed. The event will be covering many brain diseases and the impact of food or diet on these diseases. There are some talks related with neuroethics and publication ethics, book publishing, relevance of books in scholarly communication, biblometric analysis, and sustainable developmental goals by Springer executives. 

The programme was officially inaugurated by Dr Amer al Hinai, deputy vice chancellor for Post Graduate Studies and Research, SQU. The first session was chaired by Dr Wael Mohammed from IIUM, Malaysia and the keynote address was delivered by Prof Robert Friedland from University of Louisville, US on gut microbiota and benefits of food and nutrition. It was followed by Dr Farooq Shaikh from Monash University, Malaysia on epilepsy and food. A talk on Indian traditional medicine and brain health was given by Prof Surajit Pathak. Dr Wael Mohammed, IIUM, Malaysia talked about food and neuroscience. Prof Gerald Muench, University of Western Sydney talked about the use of Valeriana officinalis for brain. Prof Dartin Dr Norlinah, UKM, Malaysia talked about the role of diet and micronutrients in Parkinson’s disease and Dr. Youssef Aboussaleh of Morocco talked about mediterranean diet and brain nutrition. 

Other talks include Dr Mohammed Salama, from AUC, Cairo, Egypt on nutri-genomics and brain health; Dr Sulie Chang from Seton Hall University, NJ, USA on network meta-analysis of alcohol modulation of Amyloid Precursor Protein in Alzheimer’s disease and Dr Sattar Khan from Harvard Medical School, US on Alpha 7 Acetylcholine Receptor: An immune link between gut and brain, among others