Ghazaleh Ashrafi – Powering the Synapse on Demand

Ashrafi is a post-doctoral research fellow at Weill-Cornell Medical College, where she investigates how neuronal activity, an energetically expensive process, regulates neuronal metabolism and ATP synthesis through glycolysis. In 2014, she obtained her PhD from Harvard University, working on the regulation of mitochondrial trafficking and turnover in neuronal axons and the roles of Parkinson’s disease associated genes PINK1 and Parkin in these processes.

Cordelia Imig – Presynaptic Ultrastructure-Function Relationships Resolved By Electron Tomography

Imig works at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine in Göttingen, Germany, studying the molecular composition of the synaptic release machinery and its ultrastructural and functional organization in various synapse types and neurosecretory systems, with the specific aim to understand the mechanisms that underlie synaptic heterogeneity.

In 2018 Alzheimer expert prof. Bart De Strooper was awarded the prestigious Brain Prize, together with three other scientists. To mark the occassion, prof. De Strooper will give a lecture about Alzheimer research and the search for a cure.

Everyone is welcome to attend this festive evening on Feb 12th at the Maria Theresia College in Leuven, which will also feature music by Trio Clé. The lecture is free to attend and will be in Dutch. You are also invited to register for the fundraiser reception afterwards.

More information & registration

Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP). Vienna, Austria

One of the main goals of developmental biology is to understand how the different cell types that constitute a multicellular organism are specified during its development. We are currently exploring the different mechanisms of gene expression regulation that control this process. We are interested in how the transcriptional history of a cell influences its fate as well as in how post-transcriptional mechanisms contribute to the diversification of the genetic programs that control cell differentiation.

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Lynette Lim – Early Neuronal Diversity Shapes Cortical Circuit Assembly

Lim is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Oscar Marin Lab at King’s College London, UK. She works on optimization of interneuron function by direct coupling of cell migration and axonal targeting.

Georgia Rapti – Weaving a brain: Glia-neuron crosstalk paves the way to circuit assembly

Rapti is a postdoctoral researcher at the Shaham lab at Rockefeller University. Her research focuses on nervous system development, and in particular on glia-neuron crosstalk driving the initiation of neural circuit assembly.