Imaging neuronal functions: from molecules to circuits

Roscoff (Brittany), France, June 30-July 4, 2012

 

Deadline for application: March 15, 2012

 

Chairperson: Daniel CHOQUET

IINS, CNRS - UMR 5297, Université Bordeaux Segalen, Institut Interdisciplinaire de NeuroSciences,
146 rue Léo Saignat, 33077 Bordeaux Cedex, France
Phone: (33) 5 57 57 40 90 - Fax: (33) 5 57 57 40 82
Mail: Monod2012@gmail.com

 

Vice-Chairperson: Angus SILVER

Department of Neuroscience, Physiology and Pharmacology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, Royaume Uni
Phone: +44 (0) 207 679 7830
Mail: a.silver@ucl.ac.uk

 

This international symposium aims to foster scientific exchanges between neurobiologists specialized in single molecule imaging, photochemistry, molecular biology, synaptic integration, network function and behavior and those actively developing new optical methods. This multidisciplinary interaction will advance our understanding and facilitate new approaches for investigating synaptic signaling and plasticity, both in vitro and in vivo, from its individual molecular components to complex networks in the intact brain. Indeed, advances in understanding cell function critically depend on our capacity to improve our resolution of dynamic molecular mechanisms and the availability of the appropriate tools to study these events in live cells and intact tissue. This is particularly true in the field of Neurosciences where challenges in spatial and temporal resolution are pushed to the extreme.

This symposium is a follow-up of a series of now well established and famous in the field Monod conferences dedicated to Neuro-Physiology, Imaging and cellular Neuroscience. This particular edition aims at facing challenges that include: breaking the diffraction limits of light to follow molecular events in submicron scale dendritic spines or to understand the mechanics of neurotransmitter release in synaptic terminals; following the spatiotemporal dynamics of signaling proteins on highly fluid membranes; developing novel probes to detect enzyme activity in real time in situ; recording virtually simultaneously the activity of multiple nerve cells, at millisecond time scales, within a large area to decipher network interactions; probing deeper and deeper into the brain; monitoring intrinsic cellular events at high resolution with minimal invasiveness in intact animals; achieving label free chemical imaging in live tissue and exploiting light to control neuronal activity in specific brain nuclei in freely moving animals. These transdisciplinary challenges and many others will be addressed at this meeting. It will be a great opportunity to foster new collaborations to undertake novel challenges that will push further our ability to detect measure, manipulate and follow the intricate components of neuronal function. This is key to understanding brain function in health and disease and thus to increase our ability to design novel treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders.

This conference will be focused on how the most recent advances in single molecule imaging, photochemistry, molecular biology and optics allow neuroscientists to investigate synaptic signaling and plasticity, both in vitro and in vivo. The conference will be highly interdisciplinary, with chemists, physicists and neurobiologists joining their expertise to investigate the role of single molecules and neuronal assemblies in the functioning of a living neuronal network. The meeting will be arranged around the following 3 main topics:

  • New probes and imaging methods
  • Dynamic of synaptic organization
  • Integrated Neural function

 

Invited speakers

(provisional titles)

 

BARBOUR Boris (Paris, France)
Transmission properties and plasticity at the granule cell‐Purkinje cell synapse

BLANPIED Tom (Baltimore, USA)
Actin‐driven changes in organization within single postsynaptic densities

CHARPAK Serge (Paris, France)
Imaging oxygen consumption by neurons

CHOQUET Daniel (Bordeaux, France)
Nanoscale dynamics of glutamate receptors

COHEN Adam (Harvard, USA)
Imaging voltage with microbial rhodopsins

DARGENT Bénédicte (Marseille, France)
Assembly and Regulation of the Axon Initial Segment

DIGREGORIO David (Paris, France)
A study of presynaptic Ca channel distribution using high spatial and temporal resolution calcium imaging in the Calyx of Held

EHLERS Michael (Graton, USA)
Tuning Length Scales of Cargo Confinement in Neuronal Dendrites

EMILIANI Valentina (Paris, France)
Two photon optogenetics

HELMCHEN Fritjof (Zurich, Switzerland)
Imaging neural activity with genetically‐encoded indicators

HÄUSSER Michael (London, United Kingdom)
Dendritic computation

HELL Stefan (Göettingen, Germany)
Nanoscopy with focused light

ISACOFF Ehud (Berkeley, USA)
Optical control of synaptic signaling

KASAI Haruo (Tokyo, Japan)
Synaptic competition in the dendritic spines.

KONNERTH Arthur (München, Germany)
Functional mapping of single spines in cortical neurons in vivo

KRAMER Richard H. (Berkeley, USA)
Inventing photochemical tools for controlling neuronal excitability with light

LAGNADO Léon (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Synaptic transmission in the visual system of zebrafish
LLANO Isabelle (Paris, France)
In vivo imaging of the mouse cerebellar cortex

MALINOW Roberto (San Diego, USA)
Compartmentalized versus global synaptic plasticity on dendrites controlled by experience

MARGRIE Troy (London, United Kingdom)
Intrinsic biophysical diversity: implications for circuit design and function

MIESENBOCK Gero (Oxford, United Kingdom)
Optogenetics: reading and changing the mind

MULLE Christophe (Bordeaux, France)
Retrograde signaling at an hippocampal excitatory synapse

NÄGERL Valentin (Bordeaux, France)
Superresolution imaging of synapses in brain slices

NEHER Erwin (Göettingen, Germany)
Multispectral imaging for Neuroscience

RYAN Tim (Cornell, USA)
Optical measures of release probability and its control at CNS synapses

SABATINI Bernardo (Boston, USA)
Optical dissection of basal ganglia synaptic and circuit function

SAUDOU Frédéric (Paris, France)
Huntington’s disease: Huntingtin and the control of axonal transport

SIGRIST Stephan (Berlin, Germany)
The presynaptic active zone scaffold: on form and function

SILVER Angus (London, United Kingdom)
Monitoring fast neuronal signaling in 3D with an Acousto‐Optic Lens microscope

TRILLER Antoine (Paris, France)
Adaptative synaptic plasticity of inhibition

VERHAGE Matthias (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Trafficking, docking and fusion of secretory vesicles in neurons

ZHUANG Xiaowei (Boston, USA)
Super‐resolution fluorescence imaging of neurons and synapses

 

 

Deadline for application: March 15, 2012

 

Registration fee (including board and lodging)

400 € for PhD students
650 € for other participants

 

Application for registration

The total number of participants is limited to 115 and all participants are expected to attend for the whole duration of the conference. Applications (from PhD Students as well as more senior scientists) should be sent by email to the conference chairperson (Monod2012@gmail.com). It should comprise in one single pdf:

  • their curriculum vitae
  • the list of their main publications for the 3 last years
  • the abstract of their presentation

 

Participants will be selected within two weeks after the deadline. It is expected that all the selected participants will present their work, either in poster or oral form. No payment should be sent with the application. Information on how and when to pay registration fees will be mailed in due time to the selected applicants.