The letter has been signed by 114 professionals, most of which are practitioners and in leadership roles at private, public and third sector brain injury-related organisations. Much of the letter points to a lack of knowledge and understanding of acquired brain injury (ABI) underpinning the Code of Practice. This, it explains, causes numerous challenges in terms of identifying, assessing and managing brain injuries.

Naidex, which is free to attend at the NEC on Tuesday and Wednesday (26 & 27), features a range of speaker sessions relevant to professionals, carers and patients. Topics up for discussion include various ways homes can be adapted to better support independent living – from kitchen and bathroom alterations, to assistive technology installations. Other issues which may be relevant to neuro-rehab professionals include innovations in terms of evidencing the value of rehabilitation services and the use of virtual reality in rehab. Managing sleep, stress and anger and making seemingly inaccessible parts of the great outdoors accessible are also art of a busy programme delivered from multiple seminar stages.

Neuroscientists have found that patients born without the CCR5 gene recover better from mild stroke than patients with it. US university UCLA teamed up with Israeli researchers to study the missing gene’s effect on brain function. CCR5 plays multiple roles in the body and is known as the gene which unlocks the cellular doorway that the HIV virus enters to infect the immune system. It is the same gene that Chinese scientists reportedly altered with a genetic engineering technique known as CRISPR to genetically modify human embryos.

Researchers at the University of Utah Health and University of Washington found that paclitaxel, a cancer drug approved by the US body the FDA, offers protection to mice after experiencing mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). Paclitaxel is a chemotherapy drug used to treat several types of cancer and works by stabilising microtubules; the microscopic support beams that give cells shape and offer a mechanism for molecules to move through the cell’s cytoplasm. Researchers theorised that the drug could also stabilise the support framework inside neurons damaged by head impacts.