Cerebral Palsy Foundation Breakthrough Summit
Summit marks a decisive shift from cerebral palsy management to transforming outcomes through scientific collaboration, collaboration and urgency
— Rachel Byrne, Executive Director
New York, NY, USA, January 26, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — cerebral palsy Foundation (CPF) today announced the Cerebral Palsy Breakthrough Summit: Bridging the Gaps Between Knowledge, Treatment, Prevention, and Cure, to be held this week in Los Angeles, California. This summit brings together a select group of the world’s leading scientists, clinicians, engineers, and innovators to accelerate progress toward earlier detection, more effective treatments, prevention strategies, and critical cure pathways for cerebral palsy (CP).
Cerebral palsy is the most common disability throughout life hindranceIt affects more than 1 million Americans and an estimated 50 million people worldwide, severely impacting not only individuals but also families. health care system and economy. The economic impact of cerebral palsy is measured at trillions of dollars worldwide due to long-term care, medical costs, productivity impacts, and lifelong support needs.
Cerebral palsy represents one of the clearest opportunities in modern medicine to reduce lifelong disability, control rising health care costs, improve quality of life, and deliver measurable returns on investment through strategic investments in prevention, early detection, and translational science.
For decades, cerebral palsy has been treated primarily as an inevitable consequence of brain damage during early development. It’s been managed, but fundamentally hasn’t changed. That paradigm is now changing. Breakthrough advances across neuroscience, neonatology, genomics, imaging, and rehabilitation science open the door to preventing some forms of CP, curing other forms, and often significantly reducing severity over a lifetime, potentially improving quality of life and dramatically reducing long-term health care costs.
“This is no longer a conversation about the future, it’s a conversation about now,” said Rachel Byrne, executive director of the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. “Science has reached a point where incremental progress is no longer enough. What is needed is a sense of urgency about what can happen with cerebral palsy, how we act, and a shared commitment to translate discoveries into real-world impact for the millions of people living with cerebral palsy and their families. Our CP Breakthrough Summit is a clear statement: The time is now.”
The Cerebral Palsy Foundation CP Breakthrough Summit is designed to move beyond siled research and incremental progress. Invited researchers and scientists will work towards a shared, actionable roadmap that addresses key questions such as:
-What does true transformative thinking look like in cerebral palsy science today?
-What breakthrough advances across detection, treatment, prevention, and treatment will we see in the next 5-10 years?
-What cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations are needed to accelerate the translation of discovery into clinical and population-level impact?
Unlike traditional scientific conferences, this CP Breakthrough Summit focuses on cross-disciplinary collaboration, the urgency of change, and clear next steps, with the goal of reducing the timeline from discovery to implementation from decades to years.
“For too long, cerebral palsy has been viewed as a disease that we manage, rather than a disease that we actively change,” says Dr. Darcy Fellings, a developmental pediatrician at Holland Blueview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto. “We now have the scientific knowledge to prevent some forms of cerebral palsy, reduce the severity of other forms, and dramatically improve lifelong outcomes. But progress will depend on collaboration across disciplines and institutions. This summit is about translating what we know into coordinated action.”
The Cerebral Palsy Foundation Breakthrough Summit is led by an international group of leaders representing pediatrics, neurology, neonatology, rehabilitation, and translational science, including:
Rachel Byrne, Cerebral Palsy Foundation Executive Director
Dr. Nadia Badawi, Professor of Cerebral Palsy and Neonatal Neurology, Director of Research, University of Sydney, Australia, CP Alliance Foundation
Dr. Natalie Maitre, Professor of Neonatology and Pediatrics and Director of Cerebral Palsy Early Development Research at Emory University
Dr. Emin Maltepe, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics, Biomedical Sciences, Developmental and Stem Cell Biology
Dr. Darcy Fehrings, Developmental Pediatrician and Professor of Pediatrics, University of Toronto
Dr. Eleanor Molloy, Consultant Neonatologist, National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Professor, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland
Dr. Evan Snyder, Professor and Director, Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine, Sanford Burnham Presby’s, La Jolla, California
Dr. Eileen Fowler, UCLA Cerebral Palsy Center and Professor of Orthopedics and Pediatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine. CPF Scientific Advisory Committee Chair
Summit outcomes will directly impact CPF’s future research blueprint, funding strategy, and global partnerships to accelerate progress toward early diagnosis, targeted interventions, prevention strategies, and cure pathways, and ensure that progress reaches cerebral palsy patients around the world.
About Cerebral Palsy Foundation
Cerebral Palsy Foundation (CPF) is a global nonprofit foundation dedicated to changing outcomes for people with cerebral palsy by advancing education and policy while accelerating breakthroughs in detection, prevention, treatment, and cure. Founded on the belief that cerebral palsy is not a set or inevitable outcome, CPF works at the intersection of science, medicine, technology, and policy to advance the field beyond lifelong management and toward measurable, life-changing impact.
CPF convenes the world’s leading experts to initiate high-impact research and drive progress by translating discoveries into real-world clinical and systems change. Through strategic partnerships across academia, medicine, industry, and government, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation works to shorten timelines from innovation to implementation and ensure progress reaches individuals with cerebral palsy and their families around the world.
Headquartered in New York, CPF operates globally and focuses on solutions that improve lives across the lifespan while reducing long-term disability and health care costs.
For more information, visit cerebralpalsyfoundation.org.
Cynthia Frisina
cerebral palsy foundation
+1 404-281-9773
cynthia.frisina@yourcpf.org
Visit us on social media:
linkedin
Instagram
facebook
YouTube
×
Legal disclaimer:
EIN Presswire provides this news content “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
