The 8th Neuroscience Ireland Conference a joint meeting with the Irish Area Section Biochemical Society is being held in UCC on September 12th and 13th

27 Sep 2013

The 8th Neuroscience Ireland Conference a joint meeting with the Irish Area Section Biochemical Socity is being held in UCC this September 12th and 13th hopes to provide further insight into the workings of the brain in health and disease. A particular emphasis of the programme will be the vulnerable brain, in times of early and advanced age and during stress.

Understanding the brain is one of the great challenges of mankind, amplified by the fact that one in three people will suffer a brain disorder across their lifespan. This year has been a breakthrough year for neuroscience research with large-scale initiatives launched in the US by President Obama and in the EU. Every week the frontiers of neuroscience are challenged by stories as diverse as brains being grown in jars or new hope for treating Alzheimer’s Disease.

With a stellar line-up of national and international speakers, the meeting will focus on how knowledge at the molecular level is being, and has the potential to be, translated into meaningful impacts on patients’ lives.

Among the speakers will be Susan Vanucci (New York) and Pierre Gressens (Paris) - leading experts on the newborn brain - and Yehezkel Ben Ari, (Marseille) an internationally renowned neuroscientist whose recent work is on understanding the mechanisms underlying autism.

Switching to the elderly, Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s Disease are the most common neurodegenerative disorders and the frontiers of both basic and clinical aspects of these disorders will be presented by Rohan de Silva (London), Luc Buee/David Blum (Lille) and Angela Cenci (Lund). The relationship between diet, environment and neurodegeneration will be discussed by Christian Holscher (Coleraine) and others, and new treatments for both Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s will be considered.

Stress and trauma gives rise to many psychiatric disorders and thus Eero Castren (Helsinki) and Nicolas Singewald (Innsbruck) will discuss how both behavioural therapies and antidepressants can reverse such effects whereas Carmine Pariante (London) investigates the long-term consequences of depression during pregnancy on the health of offspring. Finally, the mechanisms of how we learn, remember and pay attention will be discussed by a number of delegates including Simon Kelly (New York).

The conference is jointly organised by Neuroscience Ireland and the Biochemical Society Irish Area Section, and expects to host over 200 delegates. For further details on schedule and registration cost, visit the conference website or contact the Chair of the local organising committee Dr. Paul Young p.young@ucc.ie or Prof. John F. Cryan j.cryan@ucc