Events

We foster a lively and engaging community at our Center through organizing regular seminars, lectures & events.

Calendar

Cartoon of a Zoom meeting, displaying different people coming out of a laptop screen.

Progress Seminars

We host weekly internal progress seminars for PhDs and Postdocs to share their research.

Microscope image of neurons highlighted in green taken by researchers at our Center

Neuroscience Lectures

We run a high-profile lecture series where we invite an internationally renowned neuroscientist to present their work.

Science Day

Once a year we organize a Center-wide retreat for talks, posters & networking.

Group Leader Retreat

PIs from across neuroscience centers come together to devise collaborative science projects and define common agendas.

Someone receiving an honorary doctorate from KU Leuven. The person is in a line of people dressed in ceremonious attire

Methusalem Lectures

Several times a year we plan a Methusalem lecture with high-profile speakers in the field of neurodegeneration.

Four members of the VIB conferences team standing and smiling at the camera

Neuroscience Conference

We organize a visible 3-day neuroscience conference with the help of the VIB Conferences team every year.

VIB Conferences

A center researcher looking in a microscope which is illuminated bright green

Mini-Symposia

We organize mini-symposia on emerging or controversial research and technologies.

Orange clock and text that reads Happy Hour against a yellow background

Happy Hours

We host a monthly themed Friday-after-work Happy Hour with food, drinks, music and activities.

Invited guest speaker Beatriz Rico looking into the camera and smiling

Meet Beatriz Rico, a Guest Speaker at our Center

We invite top-notch international scientists to Leuven to share their research at our CBD Neuroscience Lectures. A few times a year, we organize Methusalem Lectures directed towards a broad audience of graduate students, PhD students, postdoctoral researches and professors. We interview Beatriz Rico, one of our distinguished guest speakers.

Read the Blog Post

Past Speakers

2023

Speaker	Title	Position and/or Affiliation
Christine Vande Velde	Stress granules as a therapeutic target for ALS/FTD	Associate Prof Dep of Neurosciences, Université de Montréal
Lars Borm	Illuminating tissue organization by imaging the spatial transcriptome	Linnarsson lab in Stockholm
Henne Holstege	The genetics of Alzheimer’s Disease and how to escape it	Dep of Human Genetics Amsterdam UMC, Dept of Intelligent Systems, Technical University Delft, The Netherlands
Huda Y. Zoghbi	Molecular and neurobiological studies in Rett syndrome and other MECP2 disorders	Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Prof Molecular & Human Genetics at Baylor College of Medicine, Director at Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute Texas, US
Judith Zaugg	How do cells integrate extrinsic signals and intrinsic state? A systems epigenetics approach	EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
Axel Montagne	Cerebrovascular and inflamm-ageing link to dementia	University of Edinburgh Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Tommas Ellender	Embryonic neural progenitor pools and the generation of fine-scale neural circuits	Associate Prof of Neuroscience, University of Antwerp
Joshua Sanes	Neuronal injury and evolution – a transcriptomic perspective	Prof of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, USA
Sjors Scheres	Cryo-EM structures of amyloids from human brains	Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) Cambridge
Lucas Pelkmans	Multimodal perception links cellular state to decision making in single cells	Professor in Molecular Systems Biology, University of Zurich
Beatriz Rico	Molecular Programs orchestrating the synaptic specificity of cortical circuitries	Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, King’s College London
Antoine Adamantidis	All-optical dissection of sleep circuits and functions in the brain	University of Edinburgh Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Dame Pamela Shaw	MND: a neurodegenerative disorder poised for successful therapy development	Neurology University of Sheffield
Don Cleveland	ALS research: past, present and future	Cellular and Molecular Medicine UC San Diego
Mortiz Helmstaedter	Cerebral Cortex Connectomics	Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Dep of Connectomics, Frankfurt
Andrew Lin	Sparse coding for odour-specific memories through homeostatic plasticity	School of Biosciences, University of Sheffield, UK
Aaron D. Gitler	Expanding mechanisms and therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disease	The Stanford Medicine Basic Science Professor, Stanford University, Dep Genetics, California
Vassiliki Nikoletopoulou	The complex life of brain autophagic vesicles	Dep. des Neurosciences fondamentales, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Stephan Sigrist	The presynaptic active zone as a central signaling hub	Dep. of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Julien Gagneur	Regulatory genomics: From sequence-based modeling to applications in rare disease diagnostics	Dep. of Computational Molecular Medicine, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany
Alexander Stark	Decoding Transcriptional Regulation	Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna, Austria
Detlev Arendt	Building bilaterian brains: innovations in molecular machinery, cell types, and nervous system architecture	EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
Della David	Strategies to mitigate age-dependent protein aggregation	Babraham Institute Cambridge UK
Ralf Stanewsky	Drosophila circadian rhythms: Adaptation and persistence to different environments	University of Munster
Jason Rihel	Sleep pressure modulates single-neuron synapse dynamics in zebrafish	University College London
Ali Shariati	Self-organization of pluripotent stem cells into early embryonic developmental patterns through minimal epigenome editing	University of California, Santa Cruz
Taisuke Tomita	Novel Strategies for Enhanced Amyloid Clearance in the Alzheimer Disease Brain	University of Tokyo
Wiep Schepers	Keeping the balance: Neuron-specific proteostatic stress responses and neurodegeneration	Dep. of Functional Genomics, Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, VU Amsterdam
Erika Holzbaur	Organelle quality control: lysophagy, mitophagy, and neurodegeneration	Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, US
Sara Vieira-Silva	Quantitative approaches to microbiome ecology: towards personalized medicine	Head of Microbiome Research @ IMMH UMC Mainz, Adjunct Director @ IMB Mainz
John Inglis	Preprints and the Scientific Media Landscape	Director of BioRxiv
Anthony Holtmaat	Structural and functional features of higher-order thalamocortical feedback circuits	Geneva University, Neurocenter, Dep of Basic Neurosciences
Eline Jammaers	Disability and neurodiversity as sources of advantage in science careers	Hasselt University
Patrizia Zanoni	‘Diversity, equality and inclusion in science: Moving research and innovation beyond the myth of meritocracy	Hasselt University
Giovanni Monaco	Publishing at Cell reports Medicine	Editor Cell Reports Medicine
Blanca Diaz-Castro	Brain Endothelial Cell – Astrocyte Signaling in a Model of Peripherally Induced Inflammation	UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh, Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences
Matthew Holt	The Emerging Concept of Astrocyte Heterogeneity: Consequences for CNS Function	Instituto de Investigação em Saúde (i3S), Porto
Henrietta Nielsen	Chasing Peripheral APOE Signatures	Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Stockholm University
Alexander Van Oudenaarden	Novel sequencing tools to explore replication, transcription and translation in single cells	Director of Hubrecht Institute, Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research, Utrecht
Shigeki Watanabe	Ultrafast synaptic vesicle recycling	Johns Hopkins University USA
Jan Huisken	Flamingo: Modular and Portable Light Sheet Microscopy Framework for Novel Biological Experiments Inside and Outside the Optics Lab	Morgridge Institute & University of Göttingen, DE
Judith Steen	Proteomics reveals the many lives of Tau	Ass Prof of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Director of the Neuroproteomics Laboratory, Kirby Center, Boston Children's Hospital

2022

Speaker	Title	Position and/or Affiliation
Suresh Poovathingal	New Possibilities & Opportunities @ CBD Single cell & Microfludics Expertise Unit	PhD, Unit Lead, Single cell & Microfluidics Expertise Unit CBD
Gaia Novarino	Studying cortical development through the lens of human disorders	Professor and group leader at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Rosa Cossart	How development sculpts hippocampal circuits	Director of the Institute of Mediterranean Neurobiology (INMED), affiliated to INSERM and Aix-Marseille University
Sten Linnarsson	Development and cellular architecture of the human nervous system	Chair of the department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Professor of Molecular systems Biology, Karolinska Institutet
Kuang Jing Huang & Anu Tyagi	Seeing is Believing: Exploring the Lilliputian World through Electron Microscopy’ & ‘2D cellular EM and 3D cryo-EM structure determination of macromolecules	Chang Gung University, Microscopy Center, (Taiwan) & Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Division of Structural Biology and Biochemistry. (Singapore)
Benedikt Berninger	Engineering new interneurons for the cerebral cortex via lineage reprogramming	Professor of Developmental Neurobiology, King’s College London
Philip De Jager	TBA	Division of Neuroimmunology & Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center, US
Gero Miesenböck	Biophysical Mechanisms for Balancing Sleep Need and Sleep	Director Center for Neural Circuits and Behavior, University of Oxford, UK
Prof. Daniel Schraivogel	Genome-scale functional genomics screens with complex readouts of single cells	Research Staff Scientist EMBL Heidelberg
Xitong Liang	Neural mechanism of cephalopod camouflage	Gilles Laurent department, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Germany
Samantha Morris	New single-cell genomic technologies to track and perturb cell identity	Ass Prof Developmental Biology and Genetics,Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Michael Ward	Uncovering mechanisms of neurodegeneration through ‘omics and iPSCs	National Institutes of Health Bethesda, USA
Michael Greenberg	How Nature and Nurture Conspire to Control Brain Development and Function	Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, USA
Małgorzata Śliwińska	What, where, how many…? 3D Electron microscopy as a tool that can answer various biological questions	Laboratory of Imaging Tissue Structure and Function, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS, Warsaw, Poland
Axel Montagne	Cerebrovascular and inflamm-ageing link to dementia	Chancellor's fellow at the University of Edinburgh Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences
Fatima AlZahraa Alatraktchi	Biosensors – in sickness and in health	Assistant Professor, PhD, MSc, Research group leader @ the Roskilde Universitet, Denmark
Selina Wray	Human stem cell models of Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia	UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UK
Tancredi Pentimalli	Modeling herpes simplex virus 1 infection in cerebral organoids reveals new potential therapeutic approaches for viral encephalitis	Nikolaus Rajewsky Lab, Berlin Institute for Medical Systems Biology, Max Delbrück Center (BIMBS-MDC), Berlin
Anna M. Krichevsky, Ph.D.,	Non-Coding RNA regulators of brain pathologies, from brain tumors to Alzheimer’s disease	Ass Prof. of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, HMS Initiative for RNA Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Christophe Leterrier	The functional nano-architecture of axonal actin	Neuropathophysiology Institute (INP), University of Marseille
Marco Morsch	In vivo investigation of protein aggregation mechanisms and microglia-neuron Interactions in neurodegeneration	Macquairie University, Sydney
Jaewon Ko	Trans-synaptic inhibition mechanism orchestrated by synaptic CAMs	Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), South Korea
Jelle Jacobs	Uncovering regulatory specificities between transcriptional repressors and enhancers	IMP Vienna

2021

Speaker	Title	Position and/or Affiliation
Alon Chen	Stress-induced psychiatric disorders: A symphony of molecular and cellular mechanisms’	President of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Robin Hiesinger	How does a neuron decide when and where to make a synapse?	Freie Universität Berlin
Karen E. Duff	Pathogenic mechanisms in the tauopathies’	Centre Director, UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL and Professor Emerita, Columbia University Medical Center, New York
Fiona Doetsch	Stem Cells in the Adult Brain: Regulation and Diversity	Professor, Biozentrum, University of Basel, Switzerland
Peter Mc Naughton	HCN2: a key ion channel driving pain, migraine and tinnitus	Professor of Pharmacology, King’s College London
Guiseppe Testa	The time of chromatin: emerging insights from longitudinal modelling of neurodevelopmental disorders	Dep of Oncology and Haemato-oncology, University of Milan and Head of the Neurogenomics Research Center of the Human Technopole, Milan, Italy
Valina L. Dawson	Finding New Therapeutic Opportunities in Parkinson’s disease	Director, Neuroregeneration & Stem Cell Programs, Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Baltimore, US
Nara Muraro	The I_h channel shapes circadian rhythms and sleep through the control of neuronal bursting frequency	Instituto de Investigación en Biomedicina de Buenos Aires
Guillermina López-Bendito	A thalamus that speaks to the cortex: Spontaneous activity in development and plasticity of sensory circuits	Group Leader, Lab of Development, Plasticity and Regeneration of Thalamocortical Circuits AND Instituto de Neurociencias, UMH-CSIC, Alicante
Ed Lein (keynote speaker)	Creating a comprehensive understanding of human cortical cell types and circuits using quantitative single cell transcriptomic, anatomical and functional methods	Director of the Human Cell Types Program at the Allen Institute for Brain Science
Cagla Eroglu	How do Astrocytes Sculpt Synaptic Circuits?	Associate Professor of Cell Biology and Neurobiology Co-Director, Regeneration Next Initiative, Duke University
Magdalena Götz	Novel Mechanisms of neurogenesis and neural repair	Helmholtz Center Munich and Biomedical Center University of Munich
Michal Schwartz	Empowering the immune system helps defeat dementia: The key role of monocyte-derived macrophages	Dep of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel
Yukiko Goda	Rules for distributing synaptic weights in hippocampal neurons	Team leader and deputy director, Center for Brain Science, RIKEN, Japan
Dr. Alex Neumann & Dr. Balkan Canher & Dr. Joy Ismail	The X-chromosome and Alzheimer's disease: a potential contributor to sex differences?' & 'Rocks in the morphogen stream: cell death and regeneration in plant meristems' & 'Fly with me: A journey into gene regulation in the Drosophila brain'	VIB-UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology & VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology & VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research
Henne Holstege	Cognitively healthy centenarians: what can we learn from them?	Assistant Professor, Dep. Clinical Genetics and Amsterdam Alzheimer center, University and Medical Center (UMC) Amsterdam
Liqun Luo	Wiring specificity of neural circuits	Prof. of Biology at Stanford University , Prof of Neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Chris Shaw	Gene therapy for ALS and FTD; Are we there yet?	Prof of Neurology and Neurogenetics, Dir. Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute, Ass Director UK Dementia Research Institute, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London and King's Health Partners
Dr. Armando Azua-Bustos	The Atacama Desert, the Most Martian place on Earth	Research Scientist, Dep of Planetology and Habitability, Center of Astrobiology (CSIC-INTA), Madrid, Spain
Eva Hedlund	Elucidating mechanisms of neuronal resilience, vulnerability and regeneration in motor neuron diseases	Associate professor of Neurochemistry, Stockholm University, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, ass prof. of Neurobiology at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

2020

Speaker	Title	Position and/or Affiliation
Fumio Matsuzaki	Structural plasticity of neural stem cells underlies brain size expansion in mammals	Director, Riken Center of Developmental biology, Kobe, Japan
Julie Williams	The Multiplex Model of Alzheimer’s Disease	Director–UK Dementia Research Institute, School of Medicine, Cardiff, UK
Fekrije Selimi	Deciphering the molecular code controlling synapse identity in the mammalian brain	Group Leader CIRB, Collège de France, Paris Research Director–CNRS Paris, France
Linda Van Aelst	Shedding Light on Chandelier Cell Connectivity in the Neocortex	Harold and Florence & Ethel McNeill Professor of Cancer, Professor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), Division of Neuroscience Research, New York
Adriano Aguzzi	Mechanisms of prion neurotoxicity	University Hospital Zurich
Henne Holstege	What can we learn from those who escape cognitive decline until extreme ages? Findings from the 100-plus Study of cognitively healthy centenarians	Assistant Professor, Dep. Clinical Genetics and Amsterdam Alzheimer center, University Medical Center Amsterdam (UMC)
Beatriz Rico	Molecular Programs orchestrating the wiring of inhibitory circuitries	Professor, MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, King’s College London
Barak Cohen	Integration of Local and Regional cis-Regulatory Information in the Genome	Professor, Department of Genetics, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Rosa Rademakers	A decade of TMEM106B research	VIB-U Antwerp
Peter Vangheluwe	Lysosomal transport deficiencies in Parkinson’s disease’	Head of the Laboratory of Cellular Transport Systems at KU Leuven
Marc Van Ranst		Director of the clinical and epidemiological virology unit at the Rega Institute for Medical Research and member of the COVID-19 expert advisory board in Belgium and abroad
Juan Burrone	The emergence and plasticity of synapses along different subcellular compartments	Prof of Development Neurophysiology, King’s College UK
Heidi Mc Bride	Mitochondrial vesicle transport and the stress response in Parkinsons models	McGill University, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery
Nadav Ahituv	Functional characterization and therapeutic targeting of gene regulatory elements	Director, Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics (PSPG) graduate program, Dep of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, Instit for Human Genetics, UCSF, San Francisco
Li-Huei Tsai	Uncovering the role of Alzheimer’s disease risk genes using stem cells, yeast, and human brains	Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT
Dr. Maria S. Ioannou	Lipid transport from neurons to glia in health and disease	PI at the University of Alberta, Canada

2019

Speaker	Title	Affiliation
Frank Polleux	Development, maintenance & evolution of cortical circuits	Visiting Professor
Sarah J. Tabrizi	Meeting the therapeutic challenge of Huntington’s disease-from genetic modifiers to the first trial of antisense therapy in a neurodegenerative disease‘	Director of the Huntington’s Disease Centre, Joint Head of the Dep of Neurodegenerative Disease at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, UK
Jeroen Pasterkamp & Jean-Louis Bessereau	Semaphorins in control of cortical development and adult hippocampal neurogenesis & Ce-punctin sets GABA receptor synaptic content by dual control of extra-and intra-cellular scaffolds	Brain Center Rudolf Magnus Utrecht University, The Netherlands & NeuroMyoGène Institute University Claude Bernard Lyon, France
Ghazaleh Ashrafi, Cordelia Imig	Powering the synapse on demand’ & Presynaptic ultrastructure-function relationships resolved by electron tomography	Weill-Cornell Medical College & Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine
Luisa Cochella	Transcriptional and post-transcriptional strategies for neuronal diversification’	Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria
Lynette Lim & Georgia Rapti	Early neuronal diversity shapes cortical circuit assembly’ & Weaving a brain: glia-neuron crosstalk paves the way to circuit assembly	King’s College London, UK & Rockefeller University, NY, USA
Chister S. Ejsing	Functional lipidomics: technology and applications for systems-level analysis of lipid metabolism	Associate Professor, Dep. of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Southern Denmark
Inna Slutsky	Firing Homeostasis in Neural Circuits: From Basic Principles to Malfunctions	Associate Prof., Dep of Physiology & Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University
Giovanna Mallucci	Neurodegeneration: mechanisms to medicines	Associate Director UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Cambridge, UK
Alison Goate	Rare and common variation implicate microglial function in Alzheimer's risk	Willard T.C. Johnson Research Professor of Neurogenetics, Professor of Neuroscience, Professor of Neurology, Professor of Genetics & Genomic Sciences, ISMMS, New York & Director, Ronald Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease, Associate Director, Alzheimer’s Disease Research
Pavan Ramdya	Reverse-engineering Drosophila behavior	Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne
Keith K. Murai	Neuron-Astrocyte Communication and Brain Circuit Microenvironments	Director of the Centre for Research in Neuroscience, Prof Dep. Of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Leader of the Brain Repair & Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Program, The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Canada
Alain Prochiantz	Regulation of cerebral cortex plasticity by Otx2 transfer from choroid plexus to PV-interneurons	Collège de France, Paris
Sandrine Da Cruz	Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration: from the motor neuron cell body to the neuromuscular junction	Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research University of California, San Diego
Rickie Patani	The molecular pathogenesis of ALS using human stem cells	Medical Research Council (MRC), Senior Clinician Scientist, Group Leader, UCL Queen Square ION & The Francis Crick Institute, UK
Ella Preger-Ben-Noon	How to shave a baby: evolved repression overcomes enhancer robustness	Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Faculty of Medicine
Fred Meunier	Tracking synaptic vesicles in living nerve terminals	Single Molecule Neuroscience Laboratory, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Australia
Brock Grill	Molecular Exploration of Neuron Development: Insights into Synapse Maintenance and Autophagy	The Scripps Research Institute, Department of Neuroscience, Florida
Shohreh Issazadeh-Navikas	Can neurons regulate immunity?	Head of Neuroinflammation Unit, BRIC, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Anthony Mathelier	Combining transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation to predict somatic mutations altering the gene regulatory program in cancer cells	Group Leader –Computational Biology & Gene Regulation Group, Oslo
Fred H. (Rusty) Gage	Modeling neurological and psychiatric diseases with human stem cells	President of the Salk Institute, Head of the laboratory of Genetics Salk Institute, Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Neurosciences, UCSD
Vanessa Morais	The Importance of Mitochondria Homeostasis for Brain Function	Group Leader at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular iMM, Lisbon, Portugal
Della David	Understanding age-dependent protein aggregation using C. elegans	DZNE, German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases Tübingen, Germany
Alain Prochiantz	Engrailed, a therapeutic homeoprotein in models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?	Collège de France, Paris
Clothilde Lagier-Tourennes	Disruption of RNA metabolism in neurological diseases and emerging therapeutic interventions’	Associate Professor of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA, Healey Family ALS Endowed Chair for Research
Justin Mirus	The future of cloning and virus packaging	Senior Territory Manager VectorBuilder GmbH
Ragnhildur Thóra Káradóttir	Neuronal activity dependent myelination and remyelination	WellcomeTrust –Medical Research Council (MRC) Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Dep. of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, UK,
Carla Shatz	Synapses lost and found in brain development, disease and repair	Sapp Family Provostial Professor, Prof. of Biology and Neurobiology, David Starr Jordan Director, Stanford Bio-X James H. Clark Center
Monika Moscibrodzka	Seeing the unseeable: taking the first ever photo of a black hole	Assistant Prof. at the Dep. of Astrophysics, The Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics & Particle Physics, Radboud University Nijmegem
Cheng-Ying Ho	The role of skin-derived BDNF in the development of cutaneous sensory system and treatment of diabetic neuropathy	Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore
Corinne Houart	RNA regulation dynamics in developing and degenerating neurons	Deputy Head -Centre for Developmental Neurobiology, MRC Centre for NeuroDev Disorders, King's College London
Andrew Adey	Single-cell epigenomics with combinatorial indexing	Principle Investigator, Molecular & Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, OHSU
Sonia Garel	Microglia at the crossroads of cortical wiring and environmental signals	Head of Brain Development & Plasticity Institut de Biologiede l’Ecole Normale Superieure(IBENS), INSERM, Paris
Rita Sattler	Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration in C9orf72 ALS/FTD	Associate professor, Neurobiology at Barrow Neurological Institute Arizona, USA
Margaret Sutherland + Katja Brose	New funding opportunities at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative	Program Manager Neurodegeneration Challenge Network, CZI + Science Program Officer, CZI
Anne Bertolotti	Selective inhibition of phosphatases to boost protein quality control : A possible treatment for degenerative diseases	Group Leader at MRC, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge

2018

Speaker	Title	Position and/or Affiliation
Frank Bradke	Mechanisms of Axon Growth and Regeneration	Senior Research Group Leader, German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Full Prof Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn
Andreas Hermann	Modern concepts in the pathophysiology of ALS	Group Leader Deutsches Zentrum für Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen (DZNE), Germany
Detlev Arendt	Evolution of neural cell types and nervous systems	Group leader, senior scientist & academic mentor postdoctoral training, EMBL Heidelberg, Germany
Jacques Van Helden, Boris Lenhard and Hana Imrichova	'Protein binds DNA makes RNA — did our regulatory switches melt away with high-throughput genomics?' & 'Conservation versus innovation in yeast promoter architectures , Identification of coding and non-coding cancer drivers using gene regulatory network analysis'
Martin Guilliams	Home sweet home – eternal life in the Kupffer cell niche	Prof. Ghent University, Faculty of Science, Principal investigator, VIB Center for Inflammation Research
Carlos Dotti	About how changes in cerebral cholesterol metabolism determine the loss of cognitive abilities with age (and at the same time prevent neuronal loss?)	Profesor de Investigación, Consejo Superior Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa (CSIC/UAM), Madrid.
Charlotte Sumner	SMA therapeutic development: bench to the bedside and back again	Professor, Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, US Co-director Charcot Marie Tooth Disease Clinic and Spinal Muscular Atrophy Center
Martin Rossor	The many faces of Dementia	Director of the Queens Square Dementia Biomedical Research Unit & Prof of Clinical Neurology, UCL, London. NIHR National Director of Dementia Research
Phyllis I Hanson	Expanding roles for the ESCRT machinery in endosomal trafficking and beyond	Gerty T. Cori Professor, Dep. of Cell Biology and Physiology, Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis, USA
Arnold R Kriegstein	A new understanding of human brain development in health and disease	Director, The Eli & Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCSF School of Medicine, Prof. in Stem Cell and Tissue Biology, University of California, USA
Stephan Lawrence Zipursky	In Search of Cajal’s “unfathomable mystery of life”	Distinguished Professor of Biological Chemistry, Investigator Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, USA
Siddharthan Chandran	The role of cellular autonomy in neurodegenerative diseases	Director, Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK
Ryan J Watts	Charting New Territory in Neurodegeneration	President and CEO of Denali Therapeutics, USA
Thomas Voets	TRP channels as molecular sensors in the somatosensory system	head of the Laboratory of Ion Channel Research
Karin Borges	Alternative fuels to treat ALS	Assistant professor, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Tara Spires-Jones	Losing connections - the role of synapses in Alzheimer's disease	Prof of Neurodegeneration, Deputy Director of the Centre for Brain Sciences, and a UK Dementia Research Institute Programme Lead at the University of Edinburgh
Trese Leinders-Zufall	Neuronal mechanism of olfactory sensing: a TRiP into hormonal regulation	Sensory and Neuroendocrine Physiology, Saarland University, School of Medicine, Homburg, Germany
Christian Klämbt	Glial barriers and the behavior of Drosophila larvae	Professor Institute of Neuro- and Behavioral Biology, University of Münster, Germany
Rosa Rademakers	Unraveling the genetic factors associated with disease risk and disease presentation in frontotemporal dementia and related disorders	Department of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Jacksonville, USA
Simone Mayer	Neurotransmitters in cortical development and evolution	PhD, Regeneration Medicine University of California, San Francisco, US
Giorgio F. Gilestro	Most sleep does not serve a vital function. Evidence from Drosophila	Lecturer at Imperial College London, Department of Life Sciences, London UK
Isabel Beets	Neuropeptidergic networks and control of C. elegans circuit plasticity	MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
Benoit Vanhollebeke	Neurovascular development via Gpr124/Reck-dependent Wnt7/β-catenin signaling	Associate Prof and Welbio Investigator, President of the Dep of Molecular Biology Lab of Neurovascular Signaling, Université Libre de Bruxelles
Matthijs Verhage	Neurotalk: how CNS neurons regulate the secretion of many chemical signals	Full Professor and head of Functional Genomics at the VU University Medical Center and Faculty of Life Sciences, Amsterdam Chairman of the Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research (CNCR), Amsterdam
Stef Lhermitte	What happens in Antarctica, does not stay in Antarctica	Assistant professor Geoscience & Remote Sensing at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
Mara Dierssen Sotos	Rethinking cognitive enhancement intellectual disability: the role of neuronal plasticity	, President Trisomy 21 Research Society, Systems Biology Program, CRG-Center for Genomic Regulation, Barcelona, Spain.
James Shorter	Countering aberrant phase transitions connected to ALS/FTD	Seminar organized by CEBE (Científicos Españoles en Bélgica)
Sarah Teichmann	Reconstructing Tissue Architecture by Single Cell Genomics	Head of Cellular Genetics, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Hinxton, United Kingdom
Rob Meijers	Structures of human DSCAM may reveal it is an adhesion sensor	, Group leader, Structural Biology of Cell Surface Receptors, EMBL Hamburg, Germany
Natalia Rodriguez Muela	Resistance versus vulnerability: unraveling the fate of neuronal subtypes in neuropathologies’	Research Associate at Biological Research Center Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain; Associate at Harvard University, Boston, USA
Geert Van Loo	A20 critically controls microglia activation and neuroinflammation	Principal investigator Unit Cellular and Molecular (Patho)physiology -VIB Inflammation Research Center, Faculty of Sciences, UGent
Sheena Radford	Seeing amyloid: Beautiful structures and toxic mechanisms	Astbury Prof of Biophysics, The Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Avital Rodal	Routing and remodeling membranes at the synapse	Brandeis University
Silvia Cappello	Mechanisms regulating human neurogenesis	Research group leader Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, Germany
Perrine Paul-Gilloteaux & Robert Haase	Computer vision methods for multidimensional correlative microscopies: optimizing acquisitions using maths’ & Content aware smart microscopy - Let the microscope decide what to look at’	CNRS Nantes & MPI Dresden
Iris Salecker	Connections for vision	The Francis Crick Institute, Visual Circuit Assembly Laboratory, London

2017

Speaker	Title	Position and/or Affiliation
Vincent Bonin	How movement and touch entrain the sense of vision	Principal Investigator, NERF, VIB and Assistant Professor, Dept. Biology, KU Leuven
Michael Pankratz	Functional connectomics of a central feeding network	University of Bonn Life & MedicalSciences Institute (LIMES) Molecular Brain Physiology and Behavior
Simon Hippenmeyer	Molecular Mechanisms of Neural Stem Cell Lineage Progression	Assistant Professor, Institute of Science and Technology (IST), Austria
David Rowitch	Development of functionally heterogeneous astrocytes in mammalian CNS	Prof & head of the department of Paediatrics at University of Cambridge, England
Jeroen Pasterkamp	Non-coding RNAs in neural circuit development and disease	Professor of Translational Neuroscience, Director MIND Facility, Chair Brain (Center Rudolf Magnus)
Juan Larraín	Cellular and molecular mechanism of spinal cord regeneration in Xenopus	Associate Prof. , Lab of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Center for Aging and Regeneration, School of Biological Sciences, P. Universidad Católica de Chile
Thomas Biederer	Dynamic trans-synaptic interactions shape synapses and drive synaptogenesis	Associate Professor, Director Neuroscience Graduate Program, Dep of Neuroscience, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, USA.
Robert Baloh	The role of C9orf72 in neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation	Associate Professor-in-Residence, Department of Neurology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA Director of Neuromuscular Medicine, Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, CA
Nils Brose	On the role of neurotransmitter signaling in the establishment of neuronal synaptic connectivity	Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany
Erik Jorgensen	Ultrafast endocytosis at synapses	Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Prof, Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA
Xinnan Wang	A converging mitochondrial pathway destructed in Parkinson’s disease	Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, USA
Jonathan Kipnis	Draining old concepts: meningeal lymphatics and immunity in brain function	Harrison Distinguished Teaching professor and Chair, Department of Neuroscience Director, Center for Brain Immunology and Glia(BIG) University of Virginia, USA
Anthony Mathelier	Better predict transcription factor binding sites and highlight cis-regulatorysomatic mutations altering gene expression Draining old concepts: meningeal lymphatics and immunity in brain function	Group Leader Anthony Mathelier Group, Computational Biology & Gene Regulation, Oslo, NO
Fred Meunier	Munc18 (STXBP1) function and possible link to synucleopathies under the nanoscope	Prof. of Neurobiology, Head of Single Molecule Neuroscience laboratory, Queensland Brain Institute, Clem Jones Centre for Ageing Dementia Research at the University of Queensland, Australia
Silvio Rizzoli	Synaptic vesicle functional turnover	Full Prof and Dep. Chair, Department of Neuro- and Sensory Physiology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany
Jeff Lichtman		Prof of Molecular & Cellular Biology and the Ramón y Cajal Prof of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, USA
Anja Capell	Loss of progranulin differentially affects lysosomal activity in brain cells of a mouse for FTD and NCL	Senior scientist Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, Germany
Silvio Rizzoli	The relation between gene sequences and cell biology parameters	Full Prof and Dep. Chair, Department of Neuro- and Sensory Physiology, University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany
Zsuzsanna Callaerts-Vegh	What mice are telling us. Rodent model in behavioral research	PhD, Coordinator animal behavior core facility mINT, Faculty of Psychology, Laboratory Biological Psychology, Leuven
Elly Hol	Glia in Alzheimer’s disease – molecular changes and functional consequences	Prof of “Glia Biology of Brain diseases”, Dept. Translational Neuroscience, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht
Jose Bras & Rita Guerreiro	'Genetics of neurological diseases: focus on movement’ & 'Genetics of neurological diseases: focus on dementia'	PhD, UK Dementia Research Institute & UCL Institute of Neurology, London
Aya Takeoka	Where are my legs?: Spatial and temporal requirements of proprioception in locomotor recovery after spinal cord injury	PhD, Principal Investigator at NERF/VIB, Assistant Professor in Faculty of Biomedicine, Department of Neurosciences @ KU Leuven
Roosmarijn Vandenbroucke	The choroid plexus epithelium: a small brain barrier with big therapeutic potential	Associate Professor, Ghent University-VIB, Center for Inflammation Research

2016

Speaker	Title	Position and/or Affiliation
Sha Liu	Circadian and Homeostatic Control of Sleep	Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA
Virginia Lee	Transmission of Misfolded alpha-synuclein in synucleinopathiees	Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia
John Trojanowski	Seeded Transmission of Glial And Neuronal Tau Pathology: New Models of Tauopathies	Institute of Aging, Penn University of Pensylvania, Philadelphia, USA
Gianmarco Rinaldi (Sarah-Maria Fendt) & Saar Vandekeere (Peter Carmeliet)	'Crosstalk between mTORC1 signaling and serine biosynthesis pathway in breast cancer' & 'Unexpected role for phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase in mitochondrial homeostasis in endothelial cells'
Adrian Liston	The Genetic Basis of Inflammation
Ramin Shiekhattar	Targeting Integrator in Cancer	Director Cancer Epigenetics Research Program, Department of Human Genetics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Chris Walsh	Genes and mechanisms of autism spectruum disorders	Harvard Medical School, US
Daniel Peeper	Systematic genetic perturbations to reveal novel cancer vulnerabilities	Division of Molecular Oncology, Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Axel Nimmerjahn	How do glial cells control CNS homeostasis?	Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Center, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Courtney Anderson, Advanced Cell Diagnostics	The Visualization of Gene Expression & Genetic Variations in situ	Advanced Cell Diagnostics
Chris de Zeeuw	It takes two to Tango: Cerebellar Modules and Learning Rules	Chair Department of Neuroscience, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam Vice-Director Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Anirvan Ghosh	The battle to defeat neurological disease: from risk genetics to drug development	Chief scientific officer, E-scape Bio, San Francisco, USA
Bart Swinnen (Ludo Van Den Bosch) & Evgenia Salta (Bart De Strooper)	'Direct RNA toxicity in an transient zebrafish model of C9orf ALS/FTD is abrogated by Pur-alpha' & 'miR-132 loss aggravates pathology in Alzheimer’s brain: A possible therapeutic target?'
Emily Sylwestrak	Tools for mapping gene expression and neural activity in intact brain circuits	Deisseroth lab, Stanford University, USA
Carll Herrmann	Modelling the epigenetic landscape in cancer	German Cancer Research Center, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Bernice Morrow	What is new about the genetics of 22q11.2 deletion syndrome	Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York
Lawrence Rajendran	ScienceMatters - the next-gen science publishing platform for reproducibility, honesty and efficiency in publishing	ETH Neuroscience Center Zürich, Switzerland
Wiebke Niebel -Griet Den Herder -Floor Stam (VIB HQ)	Valorization of your research via VIB Tech transfer: patentability, economical and societal impact	VIB HQ, Tech Transfer
Anders Nykjaer	Sortilins as regulators of tyrosine kinase receptor activity: implications in mental disorders and diabetes	Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Denmark

Happy Hour Gallery

A selection of some of our best Happy Hour moments from over the years.