Amsterdam Neuroscience

Join us on May 8 for a full-day in-person event exploring this year’s theme: "Heterogeneity in Neuroscience: Finding Unity in Uniqueness".

We will bring together diverse perspectives—from cellular models to patient studies to industry viewpoints—to cover the entire spectrum of individual differences to universal principles in neuroscience. Expect engaging discussions on translational neuroscience, personalized brain health, and cutting-edge approaches to understanding variability in the brain.

Program

Keynote speakers

• Dr. Marie-Ève Tremblay (University of Victoria, Canada): "Microglia are the immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS). They play essential roles which are important for CNS development, maturation, activity, plasticity and integrity, but also behaviour and cognition, across the lifespan. There is currently an exponential growth of microglial research pertaining to their roles, interactions with other CNS cells, including neurons and astrocytes, and the underlying mechanisms. This work is increasingly revealing that microglia are diverse, comprised of different states which perform different functions. This discovery promises to provide selective targets for therapeutic intervention across a wide range of disease conditions in which microglia were found to be implicated.At this stage in the field, I think it is especially important to unravel how environmental risk factors for disease, including chronic stress, sleep disturbances and infections, in addition to aging and pathology, influence microglial states and their function. My lab is using complementary approaches to assess microglial metabolism, ultrastructure, morphology, and molecular signature to help unravel the outcomes of various environmental factors and lifestyle elements along the aging trajectory. My presentation will focus on recent nomenclature guidelines in the field, discuss microglial diversity, and present some of our work on the dark microglia, which are suggested to play a key role in remodeling of the brain."
• Dr. Wia Baron (UMC Groningen): "The loss of central nervous system myelin and the failure of remyelination by oligodendrocytes contribute to the functional impairment that characterizes the chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease multiple sclerosis (MS). Incomplete remyelination leads to irreversible axonal damage, making treatments that promote effective remyelination essential in precluding disease progression. A major barrier to successful remyelination is the differentiation block of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells caused by a non-permissive microenvironment. Astrocytes play an active and dynamic role in remodeling the local signaling environment following demyelination, adopting distinct phenotypes in response to environmental cues. In this talk, I will discuss how local malfunction of astrocytes in MS lesions, shaped by both intrinsic differences and chronic inflammation, contributes to remyelination failure as well as therapeutic approaches to overcome astrocyte-mediated barriers to remyelination."
• Prof. Pim Haselager (Radboud Universiteit): "With the growing potential of translational neuroscience, questions are raised about how we can stimulate the responsible development and use of applications in clinical, and also increasingly non-clinical consumer contexts. The formulation of neurorights has been proposed as a way to answer such questions, but such proposals have also received criticisms. I will provide a few examples of this debate, and discuss the potential pros and cons of neurorights."

Speakers

• Dr. Natalia Goriounova (VU Amsterdam): "Our ability to think, reason, solve problems – what we call cognition - arises from the activity of individual neurons in our brain. How the properties of cortical pyramidal neurons contribute to human intelligence is the main focus of my research.Traditionally the research on neurobiology of human intelligence focuses on either studying genetic variants associated with intelligence in GWAS or brain imaging of brain areas of intelligence. Because of difficult access to living human brain tissue, neuronal level until recently remained challenging to study. However, genes express in neurons and influence their function and thereby impact the function of larger brain networks involved in cognition. Recent breakthroughs in single cell transcriptomics of human cortical neurons, identification of human neuron types, their physiological, morphological and molecular properties (through Patch-seq approach) make it now possible to link genes to their expression in specific human neuron types and their properties. In my talk, I will discuss how function and structure of adult human cortical neurons from neurosurgery resections contributes to IQ of the same subject and how the neuronal properties are related to gene expression in these neurons."
• Prof. dr. Sabine Spijker (VU Amsterdam): "Mood disorders, such as major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD), are among the leading global causes of disability. These disorders share overlapping symptoms, complicating accurate diagnosis and often delaying effective treatment. Gaining molecular-level insight into what distinguishes may support improved diagnosis and therapeutic strategies to mitigate their impact on quality of life. Our aims were to define molecular profiles that 1) distinguish MDD from BD, and 2) reveal sex-specific difference in disease-associated protein expression. Given previous genetic and molecular findings, we hypothesized a strong involvement of synaptic proteins."
• Dr. Joram Mul (University of Amsterdam) is an assistant professor and lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and principal investigator of the Fit Brain Lab. The mission of the Fit Brain Lab is to obtain a better understanding of the biological mechanisms in the brain that are functionally impacted by physical exercise training, and how these mechanisms protect the brain against (chronic) stressors. To do this, the Fit Brain Lab team uses animal models as well as humans. This talk will highlight how we use voluntary wheel running, a mouse model for exercise training, to investigate how the transcription factor ΔFOSB modulates voluntary running-induced stress resilience. Joram will also briefly highlight a soon-starting study on exercise habits and mental health in students and in close collaboration with the University Sports Center Amsterdam. 

Poster presentation

There is an opportunity to present your scientific poster at the TN2 Symposium. Therefore, your content should align with the TN2 philosophy of translating neuroscience knowledge, with a special focus on this year's symposium theme:Heterogeneity in Neuroscience: Finding Unity in Uniqueness. Submit your abstract, and the TN2 organizing committee will review all poster submissions. Due to limited space, only a selection of posters will be approved. Submission of the abstract is possible until the 24th of April.

This event is free to attend.
Registration is open, use this form to register for the event.

Register here

Please register only if you’re able to attend the symposium, as we have limited spots available.