Dr Alan Howard, through the Howard Foundation, sponsored the first international conference on macular carotenoids at Downing College Cambridge in 2011. Dr Howard and Professor John Nolan of the NRCI created the BON (Brain and Ocular Nutrition) network of scientists and the first BON Conference was held at Downing College Cambridge in 2018 and the second in 2022. The Foundation continued its support of research into eye and brain health as a headline sponsor of the 2025 BON conference which was held for the first time in the USA at Endicott College, Massachusetts from 17-20 June. This was attended by the Chair, Treasurer and Secretary of the Foundation together with over 100 researchers and students from around the world.
The Foundation awarded Travel Grants to enable three young researchers from Europe to attend BON 2025. These were chosen by the scientific committee at BON.
Pictured here are the Chair of the Foundation, Julie Lambert, with the three recipients of the Travel Grant:
Anushka Shukla from Luxembourg,
Emmanuella Esi Dadzie from Ireland,
Lukas Goerdt from Germany.
The Foundation also awards the Alan Howard Medal which recognizes outstanding contributions from young scientists who presented at the BON Conference. This years winners stood out for their innovation, clarity, and potential to shape the future of brain and ocular nutrition: 1st Place: Brenda Fonseca, PhD (San Diego, USA); 2nd Place: Tommy Power (Waterford, Ireland); 3rd Place: Parker Polston (Buffalo, USA).
Professor Ríona Mulcahy received the Significant Scientific Achievement Award.
Professor Mulcahy is a Consultant in General & Geriatric Medicine at University Hospital Waterford, Clinical Director at UHW, and a leading academic with RCSI, UCC, and SETU in Ireland. She is a senior PI at the Nutrition Research Centre Ireland and chairs the National Clinical Program for Stroke.
Professor Mulcahy was a co-lead of the ReMIND clinical trial in 2022 which was supported by the Foundation. This showed that patients with Alzheimer’s disease, who consume a nutritional supplement containing fish oil, carotenoids and vitamin E, benefit from targeted nutritional intervention. This was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Visit the BON Conference website and join as a member to view the Conference presentations.
The abstracts of the papers presented at the conference have been published on the website of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.