Symposia
Symposia focus on advances or present conflicting views in rapidly developing areas or neuroscience. Top researchers are typically selected as speakers, and researchers at all career levels are encouraged to attend. Symposia taking place during Neuroscience 2019 are listed below.
Epigenetic Mechanisms: Shared Pathology Across Brain Disorders - Eric J. Nestler
Chair: Eric Nestler, MD, PhDInstitution: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Co-Chair: Zhen Yan, PhD
Institution: The State University of New York, University at Buffalo
Date & Time: Saturday, October 19, 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: Room S100A
Theme: Theme G – Motivation and Emotion
The pathogenesis of many brain disorders converges on epigenetic changes, leading to lasting transcriptional dysregulation and synaptic dysfunction. This symposium will discuss recent findings on the key role of epigenetic mechanisms in stress-induced depression, autism-like social deficits, drug addiction, and age-related memory loss. It will also discuss the therapeutic potential of targeting epigenetic enzymes, such as chromatin remodelers and histone modifiers, for complex brain disorders.
Opening the Black Box of the Hippocampus: Visualizing Memories in Distinct Cell Types, Microcircuits, and Cellular Compartments - Mazen Kheirbek
Chair: Mazen Kheirbek, PhDInstitution: University of California, San Francisco
Date & Time: Sunday, October 20, 8:30–11 a.m.
Location: Room S100BC
Theme: Theme H – Cognition
The hippocampus is comprised of many cell types and circuits that differentially contribute to aspects of memory encoding. Recent technological advances have led to a reassessment of the hippocampus, its information processing capacity, and how it controls behavior. This symposium will describe how electrophysiology, imaging, and computational tools can be combined to decode the function of hippocampal cell types, microcircuits, and subcellular compartments in the control of behavior.
The Molecular and Spatial Complexity of Tau: What Forms and Loci to Target? - Dominic M. Walsh
Chair: Dominic Walsh, PhDInstitution: Brigham and Women's Hospital
Date & Time: Sunday, October 20, 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: Room S100A
Theme: Theme C – Neurodegenerative Disorders and Injury
Aggregation of tau is a common feature of a range of neurodegenerative disorders referred to as tauopathies. However, the forms of tau which mediate toxicity remain ill-defined, making it difficult to design optimal anti-tau therapeutics. This symposium will address the molecular and structural heterogeneity of tau, the effects of tau on excitatory neurons, and factors which contribute to the specific spatiotemporal patterns of neurodegeneration which characterize particular tauopathies.
Circuit Variability and Plasticity in the Central Nervous System of Drosophila - Gaia Tavosanis
Chair: Gaia Tavosanis, PhDInstitution: DZNE
Co-Chair: Bassem Hassan, PhD
Institution: INSERM, CNRS, Sorbonne University
Date & Time: Monday, October 21, 8:30–11 a.m.
Location: Room S100A
Theme: Theme A – Development
Which level of variability in the connections within a circuit can support behavioral variation among individuals or trigger the modified response of an animal that has learned a given task? Unprecedented views into neuronal morphology and circuit organization allow for asking such questions in flies with great precision. This symposium will explore how variability emerges during nervous system development and its behavioral correlates and discuss the signals that promote plasticity in the adult nervous system.
Dissecting Cerebellar Function: A Prototypical Circuit Critical for Motor Learning and Cognition - Michisuke Yuzaki
Chair: Michisuke Yuzaki, MD, PhDInstitution: Keio University School of Medicine
Date & Time: Monday, October 21, 8:30–11 a.m.
Location: Room S100BC
Theme: Theme B – Neural Excitability/ Synapses/ and Glia
At the end of 2018, the world lost Prof Masao Ito. Few have shaped our understanding of the cerebellum more — from the identification of inhibitory actions of Purkinje cells, to the postulate and discovery of synaptic long-term depression and a role beyond motor control. This tribute to his visionary work and how it continues to influence research around the world features state-of-the-art studies of cerebellar development, plasticity, and consequences for cognition and its disorders.
Cortical Disinhibitory Circuits: Cell Types, Connectivity, and Function - Lisa Topolnik
Chair: Lisa Topolnik, PhDInstitution: Laval University
Co-Chair: Klas Kullander, PhD
Institution: Uppsala University
Date & Time: Monday, October 21, 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: Room S100BC
Theme: Theme F – Integrative Physiology and Behavior
The concept of cortical disinhibition has recently arisen as an important mechanism for information flow during complex behavioral tasks. Identifying the neuron types involved in cortical disinhibition, their connectivity patterns, and their functional role is therefore critical to understanding the structure and function of disinhibitory circuits. This symposium brings together leading scientists from around the world to present the latest discoveries on the dynamic organization of cortical microcircuits with focus on disinhibition and its role in cognition and behavior.
From Single-Cell Profiling to Human Brain Organoids: Capturing Neural Development and Disease - Sergiu P. Pasca
Chair: Sergiu Pasca, MDInstitution: Stanford University
Co-Chair: Hongjun Song, PhD
Institution: Perelman School of Medicine
Date & Time: Monday, October 21, 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: Room S100A
Theme: Theme A – Development
A critical challenge in understanding human brain development and disease has been the lack of direct access to functioning human neural tissue for detailed molecular investigation. This symposium will introduce recent advances in generating stem cell-derived neurons and glial cells in preparations known as brain organoids and assembloids. Moreover, it will illustrate how single-cell genomic & transcriptomic methods as well as studies of RNA and DNA modifications are advancing our understanding of neural development and disease.
Brain Somatic Mosaicism: Implications for Development and Disorders - Flora M. Vaccarino
Chair: Flora Vaccarino, MDInstitution: Yale University
Co-Chair: Alexander Urban, PhD
Institution: Stanford University
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 22, 8:30–11 a.m.
Location: Room S100A
Theme: Theme I – Techniques
Cells of the human brain can contain differences in their individual genome sequences, manifesting as single-nucleotide variants (SNVs), mobile element insertions (MEIs), and large copy number variants (CNVs). This symposium will discuss the analysis of somatic mosaicism using advanced genome sequencing approaches, as well as how mosaic variants arise and spread across the brain and their frequencies, mechanisms, and relevance for development and disease.
The Paraventricular Thalamus (PVT): Salience and Timing Orchestrator for Learning and Deciding - Seema Bhatnagar
Chair: Seema Bhatnagar, PhDInstitution: University of Pennsylvania, Children's Hospital Philadelphia
Co-Chair: Tallie Baram, MD, PhD
Institution: University of California Irvine
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 22, 8:30–11 a.m.
Location: Room S100BC
Theme: Theme G – Motivation and Emotion
The goal of this symposium is to present novel perspectives on the established and emerging roles of the PVT in complex behaviors. There has been an explosion of interest in the PVT due to its recently described roles in orchestrating decisions and behaviors involving emotional salience. Evidence suggests that the PVT shapes behaviors by integrating information about the memory and salience of negative and positive experiences, functions highly germane to addiction and psychopathology.
Comparing Dopamine Metabolism in Mouse and Human Neurons: Relevance for Parkinson's Disease - Dimitri Krainc
Chair: Dimitri Krainc, MD, PhDInstitution: Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 22, 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: Room S406A
Theme: Theme C – Neurodegenerative Disorders and Injury
Parkinson’s disease involves the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. However, unlike human patients, most Parkinson’s disease mouse models do not exhibit dopaminergic degeneration, suggesting fundamental species differences. This symposium will highlight recent work demonstrating that dopamine metabolism is differentially regulated across mouse and human midbrain neurons, contributing to differences in neuromelanin production and their susceptibility to degeneration.
Neural Circuit and Plasticity Mechanisms of Cognitive Control of Feeding Behavior - Gorica D. Petrovich
Chair: Gorica Petrovich, PhDInstitution: Boston College
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 22, 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: Room S100A
Theme: Theme F – Integrative Physiology and Behavior
Persistent food cravings drive overeating and binge-eating disorder. Palatable food cues stimulate excessive food seeking and consumption through cognitive and hedonic processes. This symposium will highlight new neural circuitry and plasticity mechanisms underlying cognitive control of feeding, including learning and memory processes that integrate sensory and reward components of food and related cues. Sex differences and translational implications of these findings will be also discussed.
New Approaches to Vision Restoration - Joshua R. Sanes
Chair: Joshua Sanes, PhDInstitution: Harvard University
Co-Chair: Steven Becker, PhD
Institution: National Institutes of Health
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 23, 8:30–11 a.m.
Location: Room S100A
Theme: Theme D – Sensory Systems
A variety of translational strategies are being developed to restore vision to those who have blinding diseases. This symposium features premier investigators who will highlight four different approaches by discussing cutting-edge research in gene therapy, cell therapy, retinal prostheses, and optogenetic therapy. It will inform the community about the current state of the science using these approaches and highlight their potential to treat debilitating diseases of the visual system.
CNS Scarring, Inflammation, and Repair - Christian Goritz
Chair: Christian Goritz, PhDInstitution: Karolinska Institutet
Co-Chair: Michael Sofroniew, MD, PhD
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine
Date & Time: Wednesday, October 23, 1:30–4 p.m.
Location: Room S100A
Theme: Theme C – Neurodegenerative Disorders and Injury
This symposium will focus on the cellular components mediating scarring and repair following lesions to the Central Nervous System (CNS). Recent advances in understanding the function of glial, stromal, and immune cell components emphasizing heterogeneity within individual cell populations regarding injury induced changes, axonal regeneration and functional recovery after CNS injury will be presented. Based on these advances, this symposium will discuss potential therapeutic repair strategies of the injured nervous system.
