Past seminars

Past seminars and events in 2022/23 at the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences.

'mGRASPi: an improved multiplex toolbox for mapping convergent synaptic connectivity'

Dr Jinny Kim, Brain Sciences Institute, Korea Institute for Science and Technology Seoul, South Korea

Friday 14th June, 13:30,  Shirley Hall lecture theatre, Chancellor's Building

Host: Dr Ann Clemens  (Part of EN Afternoon)

'The role of the microvasculature and node of Ranvier in early Alzheimer's disease'

Prof David Attwell, Jodrell Professor of Physiology. Neuro, Physiology & Pharmacology, UCL

Monday 10th June 2024, 15:30, Auditorium B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Axel Montagne

‘C9orf72 mutation in ALS and FTD’

'Blood-Brain Barrier Dynamics in Vascular Dementia: Unravelling the tripartite crosstalk between the endothelium, pericytes and microglia'

***CANCELLED*** Dr Conor McQuaid, ECR, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences

Monday 13th May 2024, 13:00, Auditorium A, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Axel Montagne

‘Deconstruction of a memory engram’

Prof Gisella Vetere, Brain Plasticity, ESPCI, Paris

Monday 29th April 2024, 13:00, Auditorium B., Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Szu-Han Wang

‘Sniffing out neural circuit changes during sleep’

Dr Julia Harris,  Sainsbury Wellcome Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour, UCL

Thursday 25th April 2024, 13:00, HRB Lecture Theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Rebecca Jordan

'RNA dysregulation in ALS'

'Linking communication and cooperation: Lessons from the naked mole-rat'

Dr Alison Barker, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt, Germany

Thursday 11th April 2024, 13:00, HRB Lecture Theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Paul Donlin-Asp

'Non-invasive temporal interference deep brain stimulation’

Dr Nir Grossman, Senior Lecturer, Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London

Tuesday 26th March 2024, 13:00,  Auditorium B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Jian Gan

‘The impact of Alzheimer's Disease on the human cortical synaptome

Dr Jessica Griffiths, ECR Grant lab, CCBS University of Edinburgh

Monday 18th March 2024, 13:00, Auditorium B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Prof Seth Grant

‘Early postnatal development of neocortex-wide activity patterns in GABAergic and pyramidal neurons'

'The Development History of the Molecular Synaptic Code'

Dr Fekrije Selimi, CIRB, Collège de France, Paris

Tuesday 12th March 2024, 13:00,  Auditorium A, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Prof Seth Grant

'Mechanisms of musculoskeletal pain'

Prof Masahisa katsuno: 'Prodromal cohort of Lewy body disease for development of biomarkers and preventive therapies' + Dr Yohei Iguchi: 'IκB kinase beta as a novel therapeutic target for ALS'

'The interaction of learning with innate behaviour and its effect on evolution'

Paul Conway, PhD Student, Ryan Lab, Trinity College Dublin

Thursday 15th February 2024, 13:00,  HRB Lecture Theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Francesco Gobbo

'Investigating mechanisms by which oligodendrocyte precursor cells govern the size of retinal ganglion cell in the Zebrafish visual system'

Emma Dumble, ECR Czopka lab, University of Edinburgh

Monday 5th February 2024, 13:00,  Auditorium A, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Prof Tim Czopka

'The energetics of epilepsy: feeding the good and bad energy'

Dr Felix Chan, Lecturer, Aston Pharmacy School, Aston University, Birmingham

Thursday 1st February 2024, 13:00,  HRB Lecture Theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Prof Mike Cousin

'Prominent in vivo influence of single interneurons in the developing and adult cortex'

'Identifying astrocyte endfoot functions using proteomics'

Dr Steve Hill, Postdoctoral research fellow, DRI, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences

Monday 4th December, 13:00,  Auditorium B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid) 

Host: Dr Blanca Díaz Castro

'TREM2 confers resilience against vascular cognitive impairment'

Dr Stefan Szymkowiak, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences

Monday 20th November, 13:00,  Undergraduate Medical Teaching Room (GU318), Chancellors Building (Hybrid) 

Host: Dr Barry McColl

‘Mapping the human brain feeding circuitry using single cell and spatial approaches’

2023 Mary Pickford Lecture + Alison Douglas Prize Giving (best PhD thesis) 'The cognitive map: from neurons to architecture'

Prof Kate Jeffery, Head of School Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Glasgow

Thursday 9th November 2023, 12.30,  HRB Lecture Theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Prof David Wyllie

'Analysing the impact of extracellular vesicles on the establishment of glioma promoting functions in microglia

Dr Julie Mazzolini, Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences

Monday 6th November 2023, 13:00, Auditorium B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid) 

Host:  Dr Jian Gan

Feldberg Foundation Lecture with Prof Jan Born ‘Sleep – a brain state serving memory formation’

'Deconstructing the cerebellar modules to understand their functions'

Dr Zhenyu Gao, Associate Professor, Dept. of Neuroscience, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam

Monday 23rd October, 13:00, Auditorium B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid) 

Host: Prof Dies Meijer

'Protective mechanisms of synaptic stimulation in Alzheimer’s disease and tauopathies'

‘AMPA receptor nanoscale organization and dynamics tune short and long term synaptic plasticity’

Dr. Daniel Choquet, Unity Director/Team leader, Bordeaux Neurocampus, Bordeaux University, France

Monday 9th October 2023, 13:00,  Auditorium B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Patricio Opazo

'Inhibitory top-down projections from zona incerta mediate neocortical memory’

Dr Anna Schroeder, Institute of Physiology, University of Freiburg, Germany

Thursday 5th October 2023, 13:00, HRB Lecture Theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr. Leena Williams

'Astrocytes dynamics in APP/PS1 mice-experience in a pilot grant application’

Dr Juraj Koudelka, Research Fellow/Imaging Lead,  DRI University of Edinburgh

Monday 25th September 2023, 13:00, Auditorium A, Shirley Hall (GU108), Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host:  Dr Jian Gan

'Deciphering the neural circuits that underlie auditory hallucinations'

Dr Stanislav Zakharenko, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN

Tuesday 19th September 2023, 16:00, SIDB Boardroom, G31, HRB link Building

Host: Prof Matt Nolan

'Origins of speed control in the spinal cord'

'Learning a cognitive map'

'Synaptic and circuit basis of distinct memory formation in the hippocampus’

'State-dependent patterns of neuromodulatory signaling in the cortex’

‘Midbrain circuits for flexible instinctive behaviours'

‘Engineering neuroscience with microfluidics: complex in vitro models made easy’

'Visual Cortex and Tauopathy: insights into network level dysfunction in disease'

Dr Fabio Ribeiro Rodriguez, Department of Experimental Psychology, UCL

Thursday 11th May 2023, 13:00, HRB lecture theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Prof Tara Spires-Jones

'Neural mechanisms for emotional behavior and decision making'

Dr Andrew Macaskill, Principal Research Fellow, Neuro, Physiology & Pharmacology, UCL

Thursday 13th April 2023, 13:00, HRB lecture theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Prof Matt Nolan

'Impact of transposable elements in neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration'

'The neurobiology of individuality'

Prof Gerd Kemperman, Adult neurogenesis, speaker and research group leader - DZNE, Dresden

Tuesday 21st March 2023, 13:00, Undergraduate Medical Teaching Room (GU318), BioQuarter (Hybrid)

Hosts: Prof Seth Grant 

'A gut sense'

Dr Melanie (Maya) Kaelberer, sensory neuro-gastroenterologist, Duke University, Durham, NC

Thursday 16th March 2023, 13:00, HRB lecture theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Ann Clemens

***CANCELLED*** 'Targeting Foam Cells (Macrophages) to Improve Stroke Recovery'

Dr Kristian Doyle, Associate Professor of Immunobiology and Neurology, University of Arizona

Monday 6th March 2023, 13:00, lecture theatre B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Barry McColl

‘Cortical wiring by synapse type-specific control of local protein synthesis’

Dr Clémence Bernard,  Research Associate, Kings College London 

Thursday 2nd March 2023, 13:00, HRB lecture theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Lida Zoupi

'Directed evolution of molecular tools for the mapping and manipulation of active neuronal circuits'

Dr Mateo Sanchez, Postdoctoral Fellow (Bioengineering), Imperial College London

Thursday 2nd February, 2023 13:00, HRB lecture theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Francesco Gobbo

'Mechanisms driving joint pain'

Prof Ewan St John Smith, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge  

Thursday 19th January 2023, 13:00, HRB lecture theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Carole Torsney

'Neuron Differentiation: From Chromatin to Connectivity’

Dr Adrian Moore, Riken Centre for Brain Science,  Hirosawa Wako City, Japan

Monday 9th January 2023, 13:00, QMRI - Wellcome Auditorium (E1.01), (Hybrid)

Host: Prof Seth Grant

'Astrocytes in tauopathies'

Professor Wendy Noble, Professor in Molecular Neurodegeneration, King’s College London

Monday 12th December 2022, 13:00, Undergraduate Teaching Room, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Prof Karen Horsburgh

***Postponed***

'Putting a spin on developmental biology and flies to battle neurodegeneration'

2022 Mary Pickford Lecture/Alison Douglas Prize (best PhD thesis) With Prof Maria Fitzgerald - 'Pain and the developing brain'

Professor Maria Fitzgerald, Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, UCL

Thursday 10th November, 13:00, Anatomy Lecture Theatre

Host: Prof David Wyllie

'Fire-together, wire together: The role of human hippocampal oscillations and spike-timing dependent plasticity in shaping episodic memory codes'

'The molecular nanoarchitecture that controls synaptic transmission'

'Neurosteroid based therapies for improving outcome following compromised pregnancies'

Professor Jon Hirst, University of Newcastle​​​​​​

​​​​Thursday 29th September, 13:00, HRB lecture theatre (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Paula Brunton

'Perivascular macrophages and SPP1 imprint microglial phagocytic states in Alzheimer’s disease models'

Dr Sebastiaan (Seppe) De Schepper, Postdoctoral fellow, UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London​​​​​​

Wednesday 28th September, 15:00, Lecture Theatre B, Chancellors Building

Host: The Microglia Club

'Expression of ApoE2 can protect against plaque deposition, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration despite the presence of ApoE4'

'Cognitive Resilience'

Dr Thomas Montine, MD, PhD, Medicine Professor Of Pathology, Stanford University, CA

***Cancelled*** Thursday 22nd September, 13:00, HRB lecture theatre

Host: Prof Tara Spires-Jones

'Matrix Resurrections: Novel Therapeutic Targets for Cerebrovascular Disease and COVID-19'

'Gene-environment interactions modulating brain function within and between generations'

'Translational behavioral studies reveal the potential for cannabis to treat bipolar disorder'

Professor Jared Young, University of California, San Diego | UCSD · Department of Psychiatry

Monday 6th June 2022, 13:00, Lecture Theatre B, Chancellors Building (Hybrid)

Host: Dr Jill Fowler

'Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms of Cortical Interneuron Development'

The Physiological Society Members Roadshow plaque unveiling to Edward Sharpey-Schafer

'Structural constraints of neuron-astrocyte interactions at glutamatergic synapses'

'Intrinsic synaptic dynamics and why they matter'

'The role of glia-neuron interactions in brain excitability and seizures'

'Vision in Action: Visual processing in active behaviours'

'What does the retrosplenial cortex do? Visual responses and visuospatial memory engrams'

'All-optical interrogation of the hippocampal role in episodic memory formation, consolidation and retrieval'

'Idling brain: from memory engram to behavior'

Prof Kaoru Inokuchi, Department of Biochemistry, University of Toyama, Japan

Monday 7th March 2022, 11:00 please note unusual start time

Host: Dr Szu-Han Wang

'Explorations in Ca2+ imaging of neural activity in freely moving rats: social cells, place cells and goal cells'

'Regional differences in neurovascular coupling and implications for disease'

'Inhibitory Microcircuits for Associative Learning'

Dr Sabine Krabbe,  Group Leader,  DZNE, Bonn

Thursday 24th February 2022, 13:00

Host: Prof Ian Duguid

'Non-productive angiogenesis in Alzheimer’s disease, a glimpse on how AD compromises non-neuronal cells'

'Oligodendrocyte progenitors alter the extracellular matrix to control differentiation and morphogenesis'

More than bystanders, learning how microglia eliminate synapses in the Alzheimer brain

'Role of tanycyte shuttles and networks in the control of glucose and energy homeostasis'