Organisers

Faculty

Alfonso Araque
Cajal Institute - CSIC
Madrid, Spain

Alfonso Araque is Research Professor at the Cajal Institute in Madrid, Spain. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1993 in Biological Sciences at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He did his postdoctoral research with Dr Phil Haydon at the Iowa State University, Ames, USA, from 1996 to 1999, studying astrocyte-neuron communication in cultured cells. He established his independent laboratory in 2001 at the Cajal Institute, where he is studying the properties and mechanisms of the reciprocal communication between neurons and astrocytes. He is Coordinator of the Biomedicne area of the National Agency for Evaluation and Prospective in Spain, Vice-President of the Spanish Society for Neuroscience and Editorial board member of Cell Calcium, Frontiers in Neuroenergetics. His major contributions include: the first demonstration of astrocyte-induced slow inward currents (SIC) mediated by calcium and SNARE-protein dependent glutamate release from astrocytes; the ability of astrocytes to discriminate between the activity of different synapses and to integrate those inputs, which indicate that astrocytes show integrative properties for synaptic information processing; the existence of new forms of neuron-astrocyte signaling mediated by endocannabinoids; the ability of astrocytes to regulate synaptic transmitter release at single hippocamapal synapses; the existence of a form of long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission induced by the temporal coincidence of astrocytic and postsynaptic signalling; the ability of endocannabinoids to potentiate synaptic trasnmission through stimulation of astrocytes; and the involvement of astrocytes in the cholinergic-induced LTP in vivo.

Paola Bezzi
Department of Fundamental Neurosciences,
University of Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland

Dr Paola Bezzi is group leader at the Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She received her BSc in Pharmacology and Metabolism from University of Pavia and PhD in Neuropharmacology from University of Milan. She was a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. A. Volterra’s lab for several years where she discovered that astrocytes can modulate neuronal functions by releasing chemical transmitters such as glutamate and cytokines. For several years her work has been focused on cellular and molecular mechanisms governing astrocytic glutamate release in brain regions where neurotransmission is likewise mainly glutamatergic. She now intends to study astrocytes in other brain regions (in particular in monoaminergic pathways), to discover whether and eventually how they contribute to the regulation brain homeostasis, neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity.

Giorgio Carmignoto
CNR Istituto di Neuroscienze
Padua, Italy

Dr Giorgio Carmignoto is group leader at the Institute of Neuroscience which belongs to the National Research Council (CNR), the main public research organization in Italy. He is also associated with the Department of Experimental Biomedical Science of the University of Padova. The central theme of his research is the specific signalling between neurons and astrocytes investigated by laser-scanning microscope living cell imaging and patch-clamp recording techniques. Among obtained results are the first evidence for the ability of astrocytes i) to be activated by neurotransmitter synaptic release in slice preparations ; ii) to work as principal mediators of neurovascular coupling; iii) to generate neuronal synchrony by acting on extrasynaptic NMDA receptors. His research is now focused on the role of astrocytes in epilepsy.

Min Cho
Nature Neuroscience, Senior Editor
New York, USA

Min Cho, Ph.D. is a senior editor of Nature Neuroscience where he manages the selection of original research manuscripts for publication. He received his doctorate degree in molecular biology and neuroscience from Princeton University where he investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying mammalian learning and memory processes. Using genetic engineering techniques in mice, he continued this work at Boston University before joining Nature Neuroscience in late 2007. Prior to his formal training, he coordinated a clinical and academic research program at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco on projects concerning genetic and molecular basis of cardiovascular diseases and lipid/cholesterol disorders. Prior to his non-neuroscience stint at UCSF, he received an undergraduate training in neuroscience from New York University, Center for Neural Science and received Bachelor of Science degree in 1997.

Douglas Fields
Nervous System Development & Plasticity Section
National Institutes of Health, NICHD
Bethesda, MD, USA

R. Douglas Fields, Ph.D., has worked at the National Institutes of Health, NICHD since 1987, where he is currently Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section. He received the PhD degree from UC San Diego and conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University, Yale University, and the NIH on synaptic plasticity, myelination, and axon conduction using electron microscopy, live-cell imaging, and electrophysiology. Dr. Fields’ long-standing interest is in how environmental experience and functional activity in the nervous system affect the developing structure and function of the nervous system. His current research emphasis is on neuron-glia interactions and in particular on regulation of myelination by impulse activity. In addition, his research explores synaptic plasticity (LTP, LTD, and homeostatic plasticity), and regulation of gene expression by specific patterns of action potentials. He was founding editor of the journal Neuron Glia Biology from 2004-2011, and he serves on the editorial board of Glia and several other journals. He also writes about neuroscience for Scientific American and other magazines and he is author of a recent book about glia written for the general audience, The Other Brain.

Marc Freeman
Dept of Neurobiology, Howard Hughes Med Inst
Worcester, MA, USA

Marc Freeman carried out his doctoral training in the laboratory of John Carlson at Yale University where he studied Drosophila olfaction, and obtained his PhD in Biology in 1999.  Freeman trained as a postdoctoral associate with Chris Q Doe at the University of Oregon from 1999-2004, studying Drosophila embryonic neurogenesis, with a particular focus on glial cell development.  He started his laboratory in the Department of Neurobiology at The University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2004 that focused on glial cell development and function in the Drosophila nervous system. In 2009 Freeman was appointed to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an Early Career Scientist, and in 2013 an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The goal of the Freeman laboratory is to define the diversity of glial subtypes present in Drosophila, determine how similar these subsets are to mammalian glial subtypes, and for those types of glia that appear well conserved, used the powerful molecular-genetic approaches in the fly provide new insights into their biology. One major focus of the group has been to define the role of Draper/MEGF10 signaling pathway in glial engulfment of neuronal cell corpses, pruning of axons during circuit rewiring, and clearance of axonal debris during Wallerian degeneration. More recently the group made the exciting discovery that the Drosophila embryonic, larval, and adult nervous system harbors a glial cell type that bears striking morphological and molecular similarity to mammalian astrocytes. As is the case in mammals, fly astrocytes are key regulators of neural circuit formation and plasticity at the level of synapse formation, circuit wiring, and reorganization during pruning events. The group is now deeply immersed in using intact preparations of Drosophila to investigate the molecular basis of astrocyte specification, morphogenesis, and function.

Magdalena Götz
Helmholtz Zentrum München
Munich, Germany

Prof. Dr Magdalena Götz is director of the Institute of Stem Cell Research at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and Chair of the Department of Physiological Genomics at the Medical Faculty of the LMU, Munich. She is an EMBO member and received the Leibniz Prize of the DFG, and the Familie Hansen Prize. She is a developmental biologist specialized in the analysis of molecular fate determinants both during development and in adult neurogenesis. One of her major contributions was the discovery that radial glial cells are a major source of neurons in the developing nervous system. She has extensive experience in the use of genetic mouse models as well as viral vectors to manipulate fate determinants in the developing and adult nervous system in vivo.

Hajime Hirase
RIKEN Brain Science Institute
Saitama, Japan

Dr Hajime Hirase is Unit Leader in RIKEN Brain Science, Wako, Japan. He received his BSc in computer science from University College London and PhD in neuroscience from University College London. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. G. Buzsaki at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey from 1996 to 2004. He was trained in Prof. R. Yuste’s lab at Columbia University from 2000 to 2001. He has been Affiliated Assistant Professor in Saitama University (Japan) since 2009. His research concerns the astrocytic contribution to in vivo neuronal activity of the rodent brain using imaging and electrophysiological techniques.

Frank Kirchhoff
Dept of Molecular Physiology, Institute of Physiology
University of Saarland
Homburg, Germany

Frank Kirchhoff is Chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology at the University of Saarland in Homburg, Germany. He studied biochemistry at the University of Hannover, received his PhD degree in neurobiology from the University of Heidelberg and habilitated in biochemistry at the Free University of Berlin. After postdoctoral periods at the University of Heidelberg and the Max-Delbrück-Centrum for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, he started his research group ‘Glial Physiology and Imaging’ at the Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Department of Neurogenetics in Göttingen in 2000. In 2009, he was appointed as full professor at the University of Saarland. He is Editorial Board Member of GLIA and Journal of Chemical Neuroanatomy. His research addresses the molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuron-glia interactions using transgenic mouse models and in vivo-imaging. He developed a series of transgenic mice with cell-type specific fluorescent protein or inducible cre DNA recombinase expression in various glial cells. These mice appeared as valuable tools to study the structural dynamics of glial cells and the function of glial transmitter receptors in vivo.

Christophe Mulle
CNRS UMR 5297, Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience, University of Bordeaux
Bordeaux, France

Christophe Mulle is a cellular neurobiologist with expertise in glutamate receptors and electrophysiology of synaptic transmission. After a PhD at the Pasteur Institute with Jean-Pierre Changeux and a post-doc at the Salk Institute with Steve Heinemann, he has been guiding a CNRS laboratory in Bordeaux since 1995. His research ambitions to link cell biological mechanisms of protein trafficking to synaptic physiology, and to address synaptic dysfunction in models of cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. He has contributed to the understanding of the elusive kainate receptors as regulators of neural circuits and provided the first insights into the molecular events that govern their polarized trafficking. In recent years he has investigated the mechanisms of synaptic integration and plasticity at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses. Currently, he has two main focuses, the mechanisms underlying the specification of synaptic properties in CA3 pyramidal cells, and the operation and plasticity of local cortical circuits (mainly CA3) in the context of episodic-like memory encoding. Great efforts are made to implement these questions at an integrated level in the mouse and to develop methods for interrogation the connectivity and function of local circuits in vivo, in a behaviourally relevant setting. A unique strength of the host laboratory is its ability to implement interdisciplinary studies, bridging molecular and cellular techniques to physiological questions.

Thomas Nevian
Department of Physiology, University of Bern
Bern, Switzerland

Thomas Nevian is Professor of Physiology at the University of Bern, Switzerland since 2012. He studied Physics and Biophysics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, where he received his master degree in 1998. He continued with his Ph.D. work at the Max-Planck-Insititute for Medical Research in Heidelberg in the group of Bert Sakmann, investigating calcium signalling in individual synapses until 2003. After two more years as a postdoctoral fellow in the same lab he moved to Bern as a group leader in 2005. His work focusses now on neuronal plasticity mechanisms and signal integration in neocortical neurons using electrophysiological and imaging approaches. While studying the cellular mechanisms of spike-timing dependent plasticity, his group discovered that astrocytes are essential components in the retrograde signalling pathway that leads to long-term depression. Furthermore, he is interested in the plastic changes of cortical neuronal networks that lead to the development of chronic pain.

Richard Robitaille
Dép. de Physiologie Université de Montréal
Montréal, QC, Canada

Richard Robitaille is a Professor in the Département de physiologie at Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada. He is also a Chercheur-National of Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec. He received his Ph.D. in 1989 in Neurobiology at Université Laval with Dr Jacques P. Tremblay. He did his post-doctoral training with Dr Milton P. Charlton in the Department of Physiology at the University of Toronto from 1989 to 1993. He then started his independent research activities in 1993 at Université de Montréal where he stayed since. He received number of national and international awards at all stages of his career. He is an associate editor at European Journal of Neuroscience and an editorial board member of Neuron-Glia Biology. His research focuses on the role of glial cells in the regulation of synaptic functions in normal as well as in pathological conditions. He uses mammalian neuromuscular junctions and acute brain slices as experimental models. He addresses the role of glial cells in the regulation of basal synaptic transmission and the regulation of synaptic plasticity. He also studies the contribution of glial cells in the outcome of synaptic competition and during aging.

Christian Steinhäuser
Institute of Cellular Neurosciences
University of Bonn Medical School
Bonn, Germany

Christian Steinhäuser is research professor and director of the Institute of Cellular Neurosciences at the University of Bonn. He received his PhD in biology and the habilitation in medicine, both at the University of Jena. His work is focused on the investigation of the role of astrocytes and NG2 cells in information processing in the normal and diseased brain. To unravel mechanisms of neuron-glia interactions, and to better understand the impact of glial cell heterogeneity, we apply a combination of electrophysiological, molecular and imaging techniques. We investigate cellular properties in acute preparations, either after fresh cell isolation or in acute brain slices. A main focus of our research is on human epilepsy. Here we apply our methods to glial cells and neurons in acute, live hippocampal specimens obtained from neurosurgical treatment of patients suffering from pharmacoresistant temporal lobe epilepsy. In addition, animal models of epilepsy are used. The goal is to better understand the role of glial cells in the generation and spread of seizure activity.

Andrea Volterra
Dép. Biologie Cellulaire et de Morphologie
Université de Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland

Over the past 15 years, an increasing number of observations have progressively modified the classical view according to which glial cells are support cells in the brain, assuring optimal functioning of neurons but with no direct role in the neuronal network activity and, ultimately, in the performance of the brain. The recognition that astrocytes, the preponderant glial cell type in the brain, possess active properties, e.g. the competence for regulated release of "gliotransmitters", including glutamate, has opened the way to a new understanding of the role of astrocytes. Today astrocytes are envisaged as local communication elements of the brain, able to generate a variety of regulatory signals and to bridge structures (from neuronal to vascular) and networks otherwise disconnected from each other, thus playing specific and essential roles both in physiology and in an increasing number of diseases. Our lab has provided some of the seminal evidence concerning the active communication properties of astrocytes and their contribution to normal and pathological brain processes (Bezzi et al., Nature, 1998; Bezzi, Domercq et al., Nature Neurosci., 2001; Bezzi et al., Nature Neurosci., 2004; Jourdain et al., Nature Neurosci., 2007; Santello et al., Neuron, 2011). Work in the lab currently focuses on: 1. the role of bidirectional communication between synapses and astrocytes in synaptic physiology; 2. the structural-functional basis of the astrocyte-synapse cross-talks; 3. the role of an altered synapse-astrocyte partnership in the progression of brain pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease. We mostly utilize functional approaches, combining patch-clamp electrophysiology and dynamic imaging, including two-photon microscopy, in acute brain slices, as well as morphological imaging and immunochemistry at the optical and electron microscopic level.

Executive Board

Alfonso Araque
Cajal Institute - CSIC
Madrid, Spain

Giorgio Carmignoto
CNR Istituto di Neuroscienze
Padua, Italy

Richard Robitaille
Dép. de Physiologie Université de Montréal
Montréal, QC, Canada

Permanent Advisory Board

Eleonora Aronica
Dep. (Neuro) Pathology Academisch Medisch Centrum
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Vincenzo Crunelli
School of Biosciences - Cardiff University
Cardiff, United Kingdom

Jochen Deitmer
FB Biologie, Universitaet Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern, Germany

Tommaso Fellin
Dept of Neuroscience and Brain Technologies
Italian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Genoa, Italy

Douglas Fields
Nervous System Development & Plasticity Section
National Institutes of Health, NICHD
Bethesda, MD, USA

Christian Giaume
INSERM U840 - Collège de France
Paris, France

Philip Haydon
Dept Neuroscience -Tufts University
Boston, MA, USA

Hajime Hirase
RIKEN Brain Science Institute
Saitama, Japan

Helmut Kettenmann
Max Delbrueck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC)
Berlin, Germany

Baljit Khakh
Brain research Institute - UCLA
Los Angeles, CA, USA

Frank Kirchhoff
Dept of Molecular Physiology, Institute of Physiology
University of Saarland
Homburg, Germany

Pierre Magistretti
Brain Mind Institute, EPFL
Lausanne, Switzerland

Ken McCarthy
Department of Pharmacology
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC, USA

Eric Newman
Department of Neuroscience
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN, USA

Stéphane Oliet
Neurocentre Magendie - INSERM
Bordeaux, France

Vladimir Parpura
UAB Department of Neurobiology
Birmingham, AL, USA

Frank Pfrieger
Inst Cell Integr Neurosci (INCI)
University of Strasbourg
Strasbourg, France

Dmitri Rusakov
UCL Institute of Neurology
University College London
London, United Kingdom

Christian Steinhäuser
Institute of Cellular Neurosciences
University of Bonn Medical School
Bonn, Germany

Alexander Verkhratsky
Faculty of Life Sciences
The University of Manchester
Manchester, United Kingdom

Annamaria Vezzani
Department of Neuroscience
Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research
Milan, Italy

Andrea Volterra
Dép. Biologie Cellulaire et de Morphologie
Université de Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland

Robert Zorec
Molecular Cell Physiology & Cell Engineering
University of Ljubljana
Ljubljana, Slovenia