The symposium was the first international meeting in Europe devoted to the blood-brain barriers and held annually.

Its main scientific mission is to discuss the latest findings in neurovascular research, focussing on molecular and cellular aspects of the blood-brain-, blood-cerebrospinal fluid- and blood-retina barrier, in particular on signal transduction processes that influence the structure and function of these barriers.

Much attention is given to the interplay of structure and function of key molecules at the barriers, such as tight junction, transporter and receptor proteins, as well as the analysis of signalling pathways that affect these molecules. In vivo and in vitro as well as translational aspects are addressed, and efforts are made to bridge the gap between molecular and systemic approaches.