ESF Research Conferences

ESF-FENS The Brain Conferences

The Neurobiology of Synapses and their Dysfunction

13-17 October 2013, Hotel La Palma, Stresa, Italy


Final Programme

Sunday 13 October 2013
12.00-15.00Registration at the ESF Desk
15.30

Welcome address

Session 1:  Synaptogenesis and Network Formation
Chair: Michael E. Greenberg, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

16.00-16.40

Joshua Sanes, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Selective synapse formation in the retina

16.40-17.20Daniel Choquet, University of Bordeaux, France
Dynamics of AMPA receptor organization and function
17.20-18.00

Thomas Südhof, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Neurexin and neuroligin function and dysfunction

18.00-18.30COFFEE BREAK
18.30-18.45Joris De Wit, KU and VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, Leuven, Belgium
Unbiased discovery of glypican as a novel receptor for LRRTM4 in regulating excitatory synapse development
18.45-19.00

Pirta Hotulainen, Helsinki University, Helsinki, Finland
Regulation of the actin cytoskeleton in dendritic spine morphogenesis

19.00-19.15Ali Ertürk, Genentech, San Francisco, CA, USA
Sculpting the nervous system: spine elimination and dendrite retraction by local apoptosis
19.30-20.00WELCOME DRINKS
20.00-22.00DINNER
Monday 14 October 2013
Session 2:  Synapse Function
Chair:  Kurt Göttmann, University of Düsselforf, Germany
09.00-09.40Joshua Kaplan, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Tuning the kinetics of neurotransmitter release
09.40-10.20Christian Rosenmund, Charité, Berlin, Germany
Vesicular glutamate transporters as regulators of synaptic strength
10.20-10.35Lorenza Ciani, University College London, London, UK
Wnt signalling modulates neurotransmitter release by targeting the calcium sensor Synaptotagmin-1
10.35-10.50Cordelia Imig, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany
Ultrastructural and functional analysis of synaptic vesicle docking and priming
10.50-11.00COFFEE BREAK
Session 3:  Activity Dependent Processes in Synapse Formation and Function
Chair:  Patricia Salinas, University College London, London, UK
11.10-11.50Tobias Bonhoeffer, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Martinsried, Germany
How experience changes synapses in the mammalian brain
11.50-12.30Roger Nicoll, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Long-term potentiation: The bare bones
12.30-14.00LUNCH
14.00.14.40Kelsey Martin, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Spatial regulation of gene expression during synapse formation and synaptic plasticity
14.40-15.20Li-Huei Tsai, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
An epigenetic mechanism regulating neuroplasticity and the extinction of traumatic memories
15.20-16.00Kimberly Huber, UT Southwestern, Dallas, TX, USA
Experience-dependent regulation of hippocampal mGluR-LTD
16.00-16.30COFFEE BREAK
16.30-17.10Beth Stevens, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA
Immune mechanisns underlying synaptic pruning in health and disease
17.10-17.50

Christian Lüscher, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Drug-evoked synaptic plasticity: From molecular mechanisms to behaviour

17.50-18.30Pico Caroni, Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland
Adjusting brain circuits for learning
18.30-18.45Wei Huang, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA
mTORC2 controls actin polymerization required for consolidation of long-term memory
18.45-20.00POSTER SESSION 1 and DRINKS
20.00-21.30DINNER
21.30-2300POSTER SESSION 1 and DRINKS (continued)
Tuesday 15 October 2013
Session 4:  Synapses and Networks
Chair:  Robert Justin Harvey, University College London, London, UK

09.00-09.40

Peter Jonas, Institute of Science and Technology, Klosterneuburg, Austria
Hippocampal GABAergic interneurons: From dendrites to axons
09.40-10.20Hannah Monyer, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany
GABaergic neurons in the hippocampal-entorhinal formation and their role for spatial coding and memory
10.20-11.00Andreas Lüthi, Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland
Regulating anxiety with extrasynaptic inhibition
11.00-11.30COFFEE BREAK and GROUP PHOTO
11.30-11.45Leon Reijmers, Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA
Fear extinction causes target-specific remodelling of perisomatic inhibitory synapses
11.45-12.25Bernardo Sabatini, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Unexpected signalling in basal ganglia
12.30-14.00LUNCH
Session 5:  Mechanisms of Synaptopathies
Chair:  Guenter Schwarz, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
14.00-14.40Thomas Bourgeron, Institute Pasteur, Paris, France
Genetic buffering and synaptic homeostasis in autism spectrum disorders
14.40-15.20Daniel Geschwind, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Transcriptional networks and integrative genomics in autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
15.20-16.00Jennifer Darnell, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA
Translational control by FMRP: Targets and mechanism
16.00-16.30COFFEE BREAK
16.30-17.10Claudia Bagni, KU and VIB Center for the Biology of Disease, Leuven, Belgium
mRNA metabolism at synapses in neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorders
17.10-17.50Karl Deisseroth, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Optical deconstruction of fully-assembled biological systems
17.50-18.05Christina Gross, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
Selective targeting of the PI3K signalling cascade to rescue molecular, cellular and cognitive defects in FXS
18.05-20.00POSTER SESSION 2 and DRINKS
20.00-22.00DINNER
Wednesday 16 October 2013
Session 6:  Mechanisms of Synaptopathies, continued
Chair:  Nils Brose, Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany
09.00-09.40Morgan Sheng, Genentech, San Francisco, CA, USA
Restoring mitophagy and mitochondria quality control in Parkinson's disease
09.40-09.55Nikita Rudinskiy, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School, MA, USA
Effects of Alzheimer's amyloid-beta and tau pathologies on regulation of experience-driven Arc/Arg3.1 responses
09.55-10.35Ricardo Dolmetsch, Novartis, Cambridge, MS, USA
Using iPSCs to study autism spectrum disorders
10.35-11.00COFFEE BREAK
11.00-11.40Guoping Feng, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Circuit-specific synaptic dysfunction in Shank3 mutant mice
11.40-12.20Eunjoon Kin, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, KR
NMDA receptor function and autism spectrum disorders
12.30-14.00LUNCH
14.00-14.40Peter Scheiffele, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
Molecular diversity and synaptic functions of the Neuroligin-Neurexin adhesion system
14.40-15.20Toru Takumi, RIKEN, Wako, Japan
Synapses and serotonin in a CNV mouse model for autism
15.20-15.35Theofanis Karayannis, New York University, New York, NY, USA
Cntnap4 is implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders and affects the synaptic output of GABAergic and dopaminergic neurons
15.35-16.00COFFEE BREAK
16.00-18.00POSTER SESSION 3 and DRINKS
18.00-22.00Boat trip to Isola Pescatore and Conference Dinner
Thursday 17 October 2013
Breakfast and departure