ANS 2022 AGM Papers

December 2022 ANS AGM Papers

  1. 2022 AGM Agenda
  2. Minutes of the ANS Annual General Meeting held 6 December 2021
  3. Audited Financial Report for the year ended 30 June 2022 

 

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Parent Room

ANS is committed to increasing opportunities that support caregivers to attend the Annual Scientific Meeting and engage with the Society. To support those attending the ANS 2022 Conference with a child, the Local Organising Committee have arranged a Parent Room for caregivers to care for their child in a private, comfortable setting, with the option of live streaming the sessions from their own devices.

If you are interested in using the Parent Room facility, please register your interest in writing to the Conference Organisers at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

We will try our best to accommodate as many people as possible, while adhering to the room capacity guidelines.

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Symposia Bios

 

Bernard Balleine

Bernard Balleine received his BA with first class honours and the University Medal from the University of Sydney in 1988 and his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK in 1992. He was elected to a Research Fellowship at Jesus College Cambridge in 1992 and appointed to a professorial position at UCLA in 1995. He was elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association in 2004 and, in 2005, was appointed Director of Research in the Brain Research Institute at UCLA. He was made an Australian Laureate Fellow in 2009 and moved to the University of Sydney in that year. In 2015 he was made a Senior Principal Research Fellow of the NHMRC. In 2016 he moved his laboratory to UNSW Sydney and was appointed Scientia (Distinguished) Professor. In 2020 he was made an NHMRC Senior Investigator and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW and, in 2021, of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

 

Raffaella Tonini

Raffaella Tonini leads the Neuromodulation of Cortical and Subcortical Circuits Lab, at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy. During her PhD at University of Milano, Italy, and post-doctoral experience at the University College London, UK, she trained as cellular neurophysiologist to investigate the contribution of synaptic plasticity mechanisms in the experience-dependent alterations of neuronal circuits. As principal investigator, her research goal is to understand how the brain learns to cope with an ever-changing environment and to choose between different behavioral options. Within this context, her research team focuses on the role of neuromodulatory substances in shaping micro- and macro circuit interactions to ultimately report selective perceptual and motivational information over multiple timescales.

 

Simon Fisher

Simon Fisher completed his PhD with John Reynolds at Otago, where he used in vivo electrophysiology to demonstrate how a physiologically-relevant form of plasticity can support learning. Simon then joined Bernard Balleine at UNSW where he described a critical pathway that is plastic during learning novel actions; and then with Chris Dayas at Newcastle where he developed skills in in vivo calcium imaging of behaving animals. Now at the Florey Institute with Jess Nithianantharajah, Simon is investigating the impact of genetic mutations associated with neurodevelopmental disorders on learning and value assessments.

 

Miriam Matamales

Dr Miriam Matamales obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from the University Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris) under the direction of Jean-Antoine Girault. She was awarded the EMBO Long-Term Fellowship to join the laboratory of Jürgen Götz at the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland where she studied age-related disorders of the basal ganglia circuitry. She then moved to the University of New South Wales where she leads the Neuromodulatory Systems and Behaviour team within the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory directed by Bernard Balleine. Her research combines innovative high-throughput fluorescence microscopy and sophisticated behavioural procedures to understand how the functional architecture of the striatum encodes goal-directed learning and how its dysfunction impairs normal behaviour.

 

Nathalie Dehorter

Dr Nathalie Dehorter obtained a PhD in Neuroscience in 2011 and was awarded the highly selective EMBO (European Molecular Biology Organization) fellowship in 2011 to pursue her research as a Research Associate at the CSIC Alicante, Spain and the MRC, King’s College of London, UK. In 2017, she took up a position as group leader at the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, The Australian National University. The goal of her research is to gain insight into the developmental processes involved in establishing neural networks and their functional impairments in various neurological disorders.

Zane Andrews

Professor Andrews is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and is internationally recognised for his work on the neuroendocrine control of energy homeostasis and behaviour. He is currently the deputy editor-in-chief for Endocrinology, the flagship journal for The Endocrine Society, an international society ran from the USA. He is also the current president of Hypothalamic Neuroscience and Neuroendocrinology Australasia (HNNA), a council member on the International Neuroendocrine Federation, the Secretary of the Australian and New Zealand Obesity Society and a co-founding member of the Addictive and Compulsive Eating Research Organisation. Professor Andrews uses preclinical animal models and viral genetic techniques to study how the brain responds to hunger to control food intake and associated behaviours. This includes the role of homeostatic and hedonic systems, and how they interact to influence both the need and the desire to eat. His lab is particularly interested in why and how the brain promotes the overconsumption of highly palatable energy dense foods and how this contributes to obesity. His group uses modern neuroscience techniques such as in vivo calcium imaging, optogenetics and chemogenetics to probe the physiological and behavioural function of hunger-sensing neural circuits. He focuses on the hormone ghrelin as a key hormonal signal of hunger and AgRP neurons as key hunger-sensing neurons and how these hunger-sensing systems control food intake and related behaviours such as reward, motivation, mood, memory and cognition.

 

Jaideep Bains

My research uses multiple experimental approaches to reveal key features about neural circuits that regulate internal state are also purposed to control behavior and store information in response to challenges. Specifically, my lab uses in vitro slice electrophysiology, in vivo imaging, optogenetics, behavioral analysis tools and physiological assays to characterize neural circuits that decode stress, modify internal states and generate specific coping behaviors. One of my goals is to better understand the mechanisms that allow these circuits, or specific cell populations, to store information related to the modality, intensity and temporal features of stress. My graduate work in Professor Alastair Ferguson’s lab focused on the neural regulation of cardiovascular output and established a key role for nitric oxide as a retrograde transmitter at GABA synapses. I performed in vivo electrophysiology to interrogate long-range hypothalamic-spinal cord connections and whole-cell recordings in brain slices to examine retrograde signals and dendritic excitability. As a Human Frontiers Postdoctoral Fellow in the lab of Kevin Staley, I performed electrophysiology experiments to establish bi-directional links between synaptic strength and circuit output in the hippocampus.

In addition to my extensive experience in synaptic physiology and electrophysiology I have used circuit mapping approaches to link activity in specific cell populations to different behaviors. My work has linked brief stress exposure and enduring synaptic changes in the hypothalamus (reviewed in Bains et al, Nat Rev Nsci, 2015). We have provided clear evidence supporting a role for astrocytes in controlling the strength of excitatory synapses in the hypothalamus (Gordon et al, Nat Nsci, 2005, Neuron, 2009). More recently, we have shown new roles for hypothalamic CRH neurons as bottom-up controllers for complex behaviors associated with stress coping (Fuzesi et al, Nat Comm, 2016), the transmission and detection of affective states between mice (Sterley et al, Nat Nsci, 2018) and linking stress controllability and active behaviour strategies (Daviu et al, Nat Nsci, 2020).

 

Leigh Walker

Dr Leigh Walker is an early career researcher at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Leigh completed her undergraduate and Hons at Victoria University of Wellington and PhD in neuroscience at the University of Melbourne. Her current research examines the neurocircuitry and neurobiology underpinning anxiety and alcohol use disorders, with a focus on sex differences.

 

Roberta Anversa

Roberta is an early career researcher at the University of Melbourne/The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. She research combines behavioural neuroscience with techniques such as DREADDs and fibre photometry to investigate the neural circuits underlying stress-induced overeating in mice.

 

Kay Double

Kay Double is Professor of Neuroscience at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney. She holds a PhD in neuroscience and the postdoctoral degree of the Habilitation (Germany) in neurochemistry, which recognises excellence in both research and tertiary teaching.  Her academic position allows her to combine her interests in neuroscience research and teaching. Prof Double teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate students and is active in teaching team leadership, strategic development of neuroscience teaching and teaching research. In 2018 her work supporting her academic colleagues was recognised by the University of Sydney’s inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Mentoring and Leadership.

 

Gabrielle Todd

Gabrielle Todd leads the Neurophysiology of Human Movement Group at the University of South Australia as well as two large multidisciplinary teams of researchers that are investigating early diagnosis and motor signs in Parkinson’s disease and the long-lasting effects of methamphetamine on movement. Gaby has a passion for science that extends beyond her immediate research interests. She has volunteered for numerous roles that aid in the promotion of science to school children and the wider community and gives regular media interviews. Gaby has two national teaching citations for her work in demystifying neuroscience for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as in the design and implementation of innovative resources to deliver a digitally-enhanced health science curriculum to improve student engagement.

 

Jack Wang

Jack Wang completed a dual degree in Science and Information Technology in 2006 and went on to a PhD at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience, UQ, to study the interface between molecular bioscience and microbiology. Jack has applied his research background towards Microbiology teaching, and his educational research revolves around interactive inquiry-driven learning, as well as measuring the impact of blending online and face-to-face learning activities in large undergraduate courses. His work has been recognized by the Australian Council of Deans for Science and national teaching awards, and in 2020 he was awarded the Australian Society for Microbiology David White Teaching Excellence award, the Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) Award for Teaching Excellence (Biological and Health Sciences) and was named the 2020 AAUT Australian University Teacher of the Year.  Jack’s most recent work on teaching and science communication is featured on his YouTube channel Biolab Collective.

 

Lila Landowski

Lila Landowski holds a teaching focussed position in the Tasmanian School of Medicine, at the University of Tasmania.  She maintains an active interest in research across multiple fields of research since then including axon guidance, therapeutic development for nerve injury, stroke and fatigue.  Lila has a strong personal focus on the importance of science communication, public outreach, and community health and well-being. With this in mind, she regularly speaks on the local radio, is the inaugural patron of National Science Week for Elizabeth College, and has been named one of Chief Scientist of Australia’s “science superheroes,” an ambassador for public education in Tasmania.  In recognition of her efforts, Lila has been awarded a Vice Chancellors citation for community engagement. Lila currently has a bioscience and neuroscience teaching role where she inspires the next generation of medical and nursing students.

 

Bianca de Wit

Bianca de Wit is a senior lecturer and course director of the Bachelor of Cognitive and Brain Sciences at Macquarie University. Bianca is passionate about transforming traditional educational and research settings with the use of technology. She has pioneered the integration of neurogaming technology into undergraduate cognitive neuroscience teaching, which has been both nationally and internationally recognised with a Macquarie University Dean Citation and invitations by the University of Washington in St Louis and the University of Exeter to replicate her cutting-edge cognitive neuroscience teaching labs. In this Neuroscience Teaching symposium, she will highlight her work as lead designer, developer and teacher of the teaching labs that use commercial neuroscientific technology to introduce students to the research methods of electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERPs) and promote active and research-oriented learning in tutorials, with a discussion of student feedback, common challenges, and the potential for future online learning. 

 

John Furness

John Furness leads the Digestive Physiology and Nutrition Laboratory at University of Melbourne and Florey Institute. He is best known for his work in unravelling the intrinsic circuits of the enteric nervous system, for the chemical coding hypothesis, and the discovery of sensory neurons intrinsic to the digestive tract. The current emphases of his work are on stem cell therapies for Hirschsprung disease and for restoration of function after spinal cord injury; development of drug therapies for colorectal dysfunction; investigation of the complexities of co-storage of gut endocrine hormones. Honours include: Fellow Academy of Science; Fellow Academy of Science of Bologna; Centenary Medal; Fellow Academy of Health and Medical Science; Davenport Medal, American Physiological Society; Honorary life member, Physiological Society.

 

Kelsi Dodds

Dr Kelsi Dodds began her research career examining contractions of the uterus throughout the reproductive cycle. Igniting a passion for research into female reproductive organ health and disease, she then undertook a PhD at the University of Adelaide exploring the role of spinal glial cells in the development of endometriosis and pelvic pain. Now an early career Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, Flinders University, Kelsi heads uterine physiology research in Prof Nick Spencer’s laboratory, primarily examining the anatomy and function of sensory nerves innervating the uterus. Her experiments utilise a range of cutting-edge research tools, including genetically engineered mice, optogenetics, and novel surgical techniques developed in-house. Current projects have interests in determining how pain information is transmitted from the uterus to the central nervous system, and how sensory nerves contribute to uterine motility patterns that underlie reproduction.

Stewart Ramsay

Dr Stewart Ramsay (formerly Stewart Christie) is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, Flinders University. Stewart completed his PhD at the University of Adelaide with a focus on the role of endocannabinoids in the dual modulation of gastric vagal sensory nerves. His current research at Flinders focuses on the role of endocannabinoids and circadian rhythms in bladder sensory neurons and how they may be modulated to help bladder disorders. Stewart is particularly interested in the role of TRP channels in both aspects, becoming an emerging expert in the field. Outside of research, Stewart is actively involved in promoting the neurosciences and regularly supervises research students.

 

Natasha Kumar

Dr Kumar’s lab studies the cellular and physiological mechanisms used by autonomic systems. Autonomic reflexes require signalling from the brain, and their function is continually regulated by genetic and environmental factors. Pathological regulation can form the basis for disease (respiratory disorders, hypertension, diabetes). Research questions include: how do homeostatic systems – which are vital for survival – adapt to changing environmental conditions? What are the consequences for neuronal excitability, physiological processes, and drug action? What are the mechanisms by which our respiratory system adapts to changes in blood pH? Currently, her lab members investigate the brain circuits involved in central chemoreception, and the potential for drugs that activate pH sensing neurons to help those afflicted by respiratory disorders, such as sleep apnea, COPD, apnea of prematurity. This research is of broader significance because most organisms utilise pH/CO2 detection for survival, however the sensory mechanisms are not clear. 

 

Phillip Jobling

After completing a BSc and MSc in the Department of Zoology at the University of Melbourne, A/Prof Jobling completed his PhD in Physiology at the University of Queensland before securing postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh and Flinders University.  In 2004 he accepted a research and teaching position at the University of Newcastle within the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy.  His research centres on the autonomic control of pelvic viscera and innervation of solid tumours. His research involves experimental subjects ranging from people to other mammals, amphibia, teleosts and aves.

 

Janet Keast

Janet holds the Chair of Anatomy and Neuroscience at the University of Melbourne, and with Peregrine Osborne, leads a team focused on multi-scale mapping of neural and vascular networks within organs. Janet is recognised internationally in the area of autonomic neuroscience, especially the neural regulation of urogenital organs. Her intersecting interest in the neurobiology of pain has focused on visceral pain and spinal cord injury pain, specifically investigating the plasticity of sensory and spinal neurons. Janet’s current research is supported by two major NIH consortia: (i) the SPARC (Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions) Program, to map the neural circuitry of the rat and human lower urinary tract, supporting the development of new neuromodulation therapies; and (ii) the GUDMAP consortium, to map the development and maturation of vasculature and its nerve supply in the mouse lower urinary tract, supporting the development of new hypotheses to probe mechanisms of neuro-urological conditions.

 

Michelle Rank

Dr Michelle Rank is a StrokeCORE founding member and Senior Lecturer and in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology at the University of Melbourne. Dr Rank is a passionate educator and innovative researcher across two specialities (neurophysiology and the scholarship of teaching and learning), with over a decade of award-winning leadership in the transformation of tertiary and postgraduate curricula. The focus of Dr Rank’s neurophysiology research program is the mechanisms of spontaneous and intervention mediated rehabilitation in pre-clinical models of spinal cord injury (SCI), adult cortical ischemic stroke, and neonatal ischemic stroke/cerebral palsy. Her research uses cutting-edge molecular (RNA-Seq, q-PCR), anatomical (immunohistochemical, histological), functional (whole-cell patch clamp electrophysiology) and pharmacological (venom peptides) techniques.

 

Kirsten Coupland

Dr Kirsten Coupland is the Hunter Medical Research Institute Dalara Early Career Research Fellow and a Research Fellow at the University of Newcastle. Dr. Coupland has spent her career understanding the molecular underpinnings of neurological disease, with the ultimate goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets. After being awarded her PhD from the University of New South Wales in 2015 and a three-year postdoctoral position at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, she joined the Translational Stroke Team at the University of Newcastle in 2018 where her molecular expertise is helping to understand how altered cerebrospinal fluid composition and dynamics impact on stroke outcome. Her work has garnered international attention having been invited to speak at several conferences, resulting in several grants, and three awards. She is a founder and co-executive chair of StrokeCORE, an Australasian research body that provides a platform for collaboration and resource sharing among pre-clinical stroke research groups.

 

Tara Walker

Dr Tara Walker studied Biotechnology as an undergraduate at the Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia), before carrying out her PhD in the field of Plant Biotechnology. In 2003 she made the transition to neuroscience, joining the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI) and the group of Professor Perry Bartlett. Here she became interested in the field of adult hippocampal neurogenesis, particularly in its activity-dependent regulation. In 2010, she joined the group of Professor Gerd Kempermann at the Center for Regenerative Therapies in Dresden, Germany, where she was awarded a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship in 2011. In July 2018 she returned to QBI as a Research Fellow to lead a new research group, where she is currently investigating whether blocking ferroptotic cell death can rescue the behavioural and cognitive decline observed during physiological ageing and in animal models of stroke.

 

Quynh Nhu Dinh

Dr Quynh Nhu Dinh is a postdoctoral researcher working in the Centre of Cardiovascular Biology and Disease Research at La Trobe University under the mentorship of Profs Thiruma Arumugam and Chris Sobey. She completed her PhD in 2017 in the Department of Pharmacology at Monash University, and her thesis examined the roles of inflammation, ageing and sex differences in hypertension. Dr Dinh specialises in using mouse models of hypertension and vascular dementia, and her current research focuses on understanding the pathophysiology of hypertension and vascular dementia, and also evaluates potential therapeutic interventions for vascular dementia. She has published in leading journals such as Cardiovascular Research and British Journal of Pharmacology (>700 citations). Currently, Dr Dinh is a co-program manager for the Annual Scientific Meeting of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia.

 

Michael Tymianski

Prof. Michael Tymianski is a neurosurgeon and Senior Scientist, a Professor in the Dept of Surgery at the University of Toronto, and a Canada Research Chair in Translational Stroke Research. His most advanced contribution is the development of PSD95 inhibitors, beginning with the discovery that PSD95, an abundant synaptic protein, is a therapeutic target for neurodegeneration. In 2012, Tymianski and his team published the first clinical trial supportive of neuroprotection by the PSD-95 inhibitor, nerinetide, in humans. His team completed the phase 3 ESCAPE-NA1 trial (NCT02930018) early this year and is currently conducting two further phase 3 trials of nerinetide, namely FRONTIER (NCT02315443) and ESCAPE-NEXT (NCT04462536), with the latter recruiting up to 1020 subjects globally. 

 

Christoph Hagemeyer

Prof Christoph Hagemeyer is an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and Head of the NanoBiotechnology Laboratory at the Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (Monash University) and adjunct A/Prof of Nanotechnology at RMIT. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry (University of Freiburg, Germany). He made contributions to the field of Cytochrome P450 metabolism in the brain before moving on to developing anti-thrombotic fusion proteins and novel imaging probes. He has particular expertise in the use of small recombinant single-chain antibodies for molecular imaging and drug delivery. His current research is the development of "bio-better" antibodies with added functionality using the novel Sortase Bio Click technology developed in his laboratory.

 

Kyna Conn

Dr Kyna Conn is a postdoctoral researcher in the Anorexia and Feeding Disorders Group at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. She completed her PhD at the Queensland Brain Institute in 2021 under the supervision of Dr James Kesby and A/Prof Thomas Burne, in which she focused on subcortical dopamine function and decision-making deficits in schizophrenia. To this end, she used virally-mediated neural circuit modulation and pharmacological manipulations together with operant paradigms in mouse models, and was awarded the UQ Graduate Ready Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2021. Dr Conn joined the Foldi Group in 2022 to extend her understanding of monoamine function in corticostriatal circuits and the relationships between neurochemical signalling and cognitive behaviour in the context of anorexia nervosa. Her major research focus is on determining the influence of psilocybin on cognition, reward and pathological weight loss and how this may be mediated by regionally- and receptor-specific serotonin and dopamine function.

 

Devon Stoliker

Devon Stoliker is a recent PhD graduate working at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health in the School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Australia. After finishing his studies at the University of Guelph, Canada, he joined Monash University, where his research combines psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience approaches, to explore consciousness in the Razi lab. Devon's PhD focused on the neural mechanisms and psychology underlying serotonergic psychedelic experiences. Devon also designed and investigated the PsiConnect trial, which examines the influence of psilocybin on brain connectivity, mindset and setting using a meditation intervention. He is now working with PsiConnect data using dynamic causal modelling and research exploring the brain connectivity underlying subject-object attention and perception.

 

Chris Letheby

Dr Chris Letheby is a Lecturer in Philosophy at The University of Western Australia (UWA) who specializes in the philosophy of mind and cognition. His research to date has focused mainly on the use of classic psychedelic drugs in neuroscience and psychiatry. In several articles and a book, Letheby has argued that a traditional conception of psychedelics as agents of insight and spirituality can be reconciled with naturalism, the philosophical position that the natural world is all there is. His monograph Philosophy of Psychedelics was published in 2021 by Oxford University Press and is the subject of a recent symposium in the journal Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. The book has received two awards, both from The University of Adelaide (where Letheby worked while writing it): the Faculty of Arts Prize for Outstanding Research by an Early Career Researcher and the School of Humanities Early Career Prize for best publication in 2021.

Adeel Razi

Dr Adeel Razi is an Associate Professor at the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, in the School of Psychological Sciences, Monash University, Australia. He joined Monash, after finishing his postdoctoral studies (2012-2018) at the Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL, UK. His research is cross-disciplinary, combining engineering, physics, and machine-learning approaches, to model complex, multi-scale, network dynamics of brain structure and function using neuroimaging. He is currently an NHMRC Investigator (Emerging Leadership, 2021-2025), CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar (2021-2023) in their Brain, Mind and Consciousness Program and was an ARC DECRA Fellow (2018-2021). He received the B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering (with a Gold Medal) from the N.E.D. University of Engineering & Technology in Pakistan, the M.Sc. degree in Communications Engineering from the University of Technology Aachen (RWTH), Germany, and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia in 2012.

 

Sarah-Catherine Rodan

Ms Sarah-Catherine Rodan is a PhD student at the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics and InsideOut Institute for eating disorders at the University of Sydney under the supervision of Prof Iain McGregor and A/Prof Sarah Maguire. Her research focus is trialling novel pharmacotherapies, psilocybin and cannabidiol, as adjuncts to psychotherapy to improve treatment for anorexia nervosa at varying stages of illness progression. She is the lead investigator on the recently funded MRFF 2021 Innovative Therapies Grant for mental illness PANOREXIA trial, investigating psilocybin assisted psychotherapy for treatment-resistant anorexia nervosa in adults. A two-site, single-arm, single-blind study in collaboration with a partner Phase I/II clinical trial being led at Imperial College London. She is also the lead investigator on an open-label Phase I/II clinical trial for cannabidiol as an adjunct to Maudsley family-based treatment for children and adolescents with anorexia nervosa.  

 

Claire Foldi

Dr Claire Foldi is a Group Leader at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute where she leads a program of research in the Department of Physiology focused on the neurobiological underpinnings of anorexia nervosa. Much of this work has centred on how activity and molecular signalling within specific neural circuits involved in reward processing and cognition contribute to the development of pathological weight loss in animal models. The Foldi Group is now investigating how psilocybin acts in the brain to modify cognitive behaviour in order to gain insight into its therapeutic potential for anorexia nervosa. Both streams of research are funded through NHMRC Ideas Grants awarded in 2021 and 2022. Dr Foldi also co-leads the Workforce Development stream of the newly-established National Centre for Eating Disorders Research and Translation, and is affiliated with the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies (M3CS) and the Monash Neuromedicines Discovery Centre (NDC).  

Harald Janovjak

Professor Harald Janovjak received doctorate degree biophysics from University of Technology Dresden. After post-doctoral research at the University of California Berkeley as an EMBL Long-Term Fellow and at the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, Harald joined the Institute of Science and Technology Austria near Vienna as an Assistant Professor in 2011. In 2018, Harald relocated to Australia as an EMBL Australia group leader and Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Monash University. Since 2022, Harald is a Matthew Flinders Professor in Molecular Medical Bioengineering at Flinders University and the head of the Synthetic Physiology Laboratory. Harald also is a co-Chair of Optogenetics Australia and the Discipline Lead Biotechnology at Flinders University.

 

Mariana Del Rosso de Melo

Dr Melo received her PhD in Physiology from the Federal University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) in 2017. During her PhD in Brazil, she was awarded a fellowship to study with Prof Andrew Allen at the University of Melbourne and learnt viral transduction, optogenetic and chemogenetic methods. In 2018 she re-located to the University of Melbourne for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with Prof Andrew Allen and had developed new in vivo viral transduction and electromyography recording methods in the laboratory. She has published 14 original research articles, including publications in Cell Reports, 2020 (2nd author, J.I.F:8.109), eLife 2020 (J.I.F: 7.08) and Hypertension 2021 (shared first author, J.I.F: 10.19). She has also been granted independent research funding from the University of Melbourne and High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia.

 

Brett Graham

Brett Graham is Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy and Chair of the Hunter Medical Research Institute Brain Neuromodulation Program. He completed his PhD in 2006 and after a short postdoctoral posting, established the Spinal Cord Connections Laboratory at the University of Newcastle (2008). His research focusses on deciphering neuronal heterogeneity and sensory processing circuits in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord with an emphasis on pathological pain mechanisms. His group combines several technically demanding and leading-edge approaches to address this topic, including in vivo patch clamp electrophysiology, optogenetics, intersectional viral transduction, calcium imaging, and behavioural analyses. This work has led to significant contributions on our understanding of the role played by presynaptic and postsynaptic inhibition, delineating sensory gating microcircuits, and defining interconnected excitatory networks formed by dorsal horn interneurons. 

 

Rachael Richardson

Rachael completed a BSc degree at the University of Melbourne, majoring in pathology and biochemistry. Her BSc(Hons) and PhD were undertaken at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in the Department of Cancer and Haematology, under the supervision of Prof Doug Hilton. In 2001, Rachael began working at the Bionics Institute (known then as the Bionic Ear Institute) in the areas of hearing therapeutics, gene therapy and cochlear implants. She remains at the Bionics Institute, now as an Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, and Deputy Head of Department of the Medical Bionics Department at the University of Melbourne. Her main goal is to develop innovative strategies to improve precision of neural stimulation, including optogenetic-based approaches for improving hearing, vision, and neurological conditions of the central and peripheral nervous systems.

Daisuke Shimaoka

Daisuke completed a B.E. in Osaka University (Biophysical Engineering), M.S. and PhD in The University of Tokyo (Multidisciplinary Sciences, focusing on the application of dynamical system theory on neural systems). In part funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, he did his postdoc at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, where he contributed to developing Genetically-Encoded Indicators and applied them to widefield optical imaging of mice under anesthesia, awake spontaneous locomotion and awake task-engaged conditions. Since 2019, he has been a research fellow at the Department of Physiology, Monash University. His research program focuses on how intrinsic brain activity interacts with external inputs for interpreting, responding to, and predicting the outside world.

 

Maureen Hagan

Maureen Hagan is Group Leader and an ARC DECRA Fellow at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute in the Neuroscience group. She completed her doctoral work at the Centre for Neural Science at New York University in the laboratory of Bijan Pesaran studying the mechanisms of inter-area communication in the parietal cortex and her undergraduate work at the University of California Los Angeles. At Monash, her work has expanded on her doctoral work to understand information is communicated across areas of the cortex and how this information is used to guide cognitive behaviours like attention and decision-making.

 

Saba Gharaei

Saba was awarded PhD from the University of Sydney in 2016. Since then, she has been a post-doctoral fellow conducting her research under the guidance Prof Greg Stuart and Prof Ehsan Arabzadeh at the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, the Australian National University. She is an emerging expert in the field of cellular and systems neuroscience and the high quality of her multidisciplinary research outputs are evident in the ranking and esteem of the journals in which she has published. Her expertise are in vivo electrophysiology, optogenetics and behavioural neuroscience.

 

Elise Rowe

Elise is an early-career postdoctoral researcher within the Cognitive Neuroscience and Computational Psychiatry Laboratory at the University of Melbourne. Elise recently completed her PhD in the Neuroscience of Consciousness laboratory at Monash University where she used EEG-based computational modelling and machine learning techniques to investigate visual perception, attention, awareness and predictive coding mechanisms. Elise’s postdoctoral research uses MRI and dMRI to investigate the subcortical pathways underlying various aspects of visual perception, specifically those relating to conscious and unconscious visual processing.

 

Ethan Scott

Ethan Scott earned his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where he studied molecular genetics in yeast under the mentorship of Prof. Thomas Petes. He then moved to Stanford University, and the lab of Prof. Liqun Luo, for his PhD work in developmental neuroscience. This work involved using targeted transgenics in Drosophila to express protein tools that revealed neurons' structures and contributions to sensory processing. This approach, using transgenics to explore the structure and function of neurons and networks, has formed the basis of his subsequent work. As a postdoc with Prof. Herwig Baier at UC-San Francisco, Ethan developed Gal4 enhancer trapping in the zebrafish model system, providing transgenic reagents for the exploration of this system's neural networks. In 2007, he established his own lab at the University of Queensland, where he is now a professor.

 

Luke Hallum

Luke is a biomedical engineer interested in vision, visual neuroscience, and neural prosthetics. He completed a B.E. (Computer Engineering) at the University of Wollongong, and a Ph.D. (Biomedical Engineering) at the University of New South Wales. He did postdoctoral research at New York University in both the Department of Psychology and the Center for Neural Science. There, he made psychophysical, fMRI, and neuronal measurements in normal and amblyopic visual systems. In 2018 Luke joined the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Auckland as a Senior Lecturer.

 

Cliff Abraham

Cliff Abraham received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Florida before moving to New Zealand as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Otago, where he is now Professor of Psychology. He was the founding Director of Otago’s Brain Health Research Centre and founding co-Director of the national Centre of Research Excellence: Brain Research New Zealand-Rangahau Roro Aotearoa, and is currently co-Leader of the Aotearoa Brain Project. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and was awarded the University of Otago’s Distinguished Research Medal. Professor Abraham’s research focuses on the neural mechanisms of learning and memory, especially the phenomena of long-term potentiation, long-term depression and metaplasticity, the latter being a term that he coined. He has led several large programmes of research investigating plasticity mechanisms as well as biomarkers and therapeutic agents for Alzheimer’s disease, funded by the NZ Health Research Council.

 

Luci Schweitzer

Dr Lucia Schweitzer is a research fellow in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Otago. Lucia is a molecular and cellular neurobiologist with an interest in neurodegenerative diseases. Over the last 10 years, Lucia has worked on projects investigating adult neurogenesis, therapies and models for Alzheimer’s disease within a multi-group programme, and Batten disease within an international research network. Lucia currently studies the role of lysosomal dysfunction in microglia and astrocytes in neurodegeneration in A/P Stephanie Hughes’ lab. The studies utilise a combination viral vector administration to mouse models, as well as in vitro work using primary rodent, and iPSC-derived human neurons glial cells. Linking back to her PhD work which focused on RNA regulation and localisation in neurons, Lucia is also interested in the roles of RNA binding proteins in ageing and neurodegeneration.

 

Sophie Mathiesen

Sophie Mathiesen is a PhD candidate in her final year at the University of Otago in Dunedin, NZ, supervised by AP Stephanie Hughes and Prof Cliff Abraham. During her PhD, she has been studying the use of AAV gene therapy vectors for treating neurological disease, with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, she has investigated AAV vectors that have been modified to effectively reach the central nervous system when given by intravenous injection. Preclinical studies using these vectors, carried out by Sophie and other members of the Hughes and Abraham laboratories, have illuminated understanding of the prospects and pitfalls of this novel therapeutic technique.

Debbie Young

Deborah Young completed her PhD in 1998 before postdoctoral training in the lab of gene therapy pioneer Matthew During. She has a long-standing interest in gene therapy for neurodegenerative diseases and AAV vectors as a tool for gene transfer to the brain. Following the award of an HRC Sir Charles Hercus Health Research Fellowship in 2003, she was appointed as an Associate Professor in Pharmacology in 2010 and leads the Molecular Neurotherapeutics lab at the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. Her current research focuses on the preclinical testing of new gene regulation technologies and specific cell-targeting vectors to refine the clinical application of gene therapy, an area of interest sparked as a collaborator on the first human gene therapy trial for Parkinson’s disease. She has an h-index of 35 and has published 87 articles/book chapters. In 2017, she was appointed an Associate Director at the CBR.

 

Thomas Edwards

Thomas Edwards is a consultant vitreoretinal surgeon at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH) and Principal Investigator at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA). He holds a dual appointment in the Vitreoretinal Unit and the Ocular Genetics Clinic at the RVEEH. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and was the recipient of a Nuffield Fellowship to the University of Oxford. He leads a research group working on translational projects involving retinal gene therapy, including clinical trials.

 

Sam Nayler

Sam Nayler’s research is focussed on neural development, and spans across disciplines to utilize cutting edge in vitro models to investigate neurodegeneration.  Sam was awarded a PhD  from the University of Queensland, using pluripotent stem cells to understand the rare disease Ataxia Telangiectasia (A-T), resulting in the first reported generation of iPSCs (2012) and cerebellar neurons (2017) from patients with A-T. In 2016 Sam was the Australian recipient of the Oxford Nuffield Medical Fellowship, and in April 2017 commenced a postdoctoral position in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford continuing his work in both neuronal organoid technology as well as single cell sequencing, specifically, the development of informatics pipelines for analysis of large patient cohorts. Sam returned home to Australia in 2020 and continues to utilize both bioinformatics and wet-lab approaches to develop screening platforms for the next generation of disease modelling and drug discovery.

 

Adam Walker

Dr Adam Walker is the Ross Maclean Fellow for MND Research at the Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland. He obtained his PhD in neuroscience from the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health at the University of Melbourne, and was an NHMRC CJ Martin postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Neurodegenerative Disease Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr Walker leads a research group studying the molecular mechanisms of motor neuron disease and frontotemporal dementia with a focus on understanding the role of TDP-43 dysfunction in disease. His work is supported by agencies including the NHMRC, FightMND, Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research, and MND Research Australia.

 

Catherine Blizzard

Dr Cathy Blizzard is a mid-career researcher and Senior Lecturer at the University of Tasmanian’s Tasmanian School of Medicine.  Her research is directed toward understanding the pathological processes that lead to the demise of the corticomotor-system in Motor Neuron Disease. Cathy has spent the last decade on continuous nationally competitive research fellowship and her research has been supported by the NHMRC, ARC, MNDRA, Brain Foundation and Dementia Australia. The research Cathy performs has contributed to our understanding of the triggers for neurodegeneration in MND and has been cited over 1200 times.

 

Seth Masters

A/Prof Seth Masters is head of the Inflammasomes and Autoinflammatory Disease laboratory at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. He holds a joint appointment at the Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics (China), is a scientific advisor for IFM therapeutics, and is appointed as a fellow of the Viertel Foundation, HHMI-Wellcome Trust and the NHMRC.

 

Mouna Haidar

Dr Mouna Haidar completed her PhD in neuroscience in 2018 at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, University of Melbourne, where she examined the role of a brain neuropeptide in learning and memory within the neurodegenerative disciplines. Soon after completing her PhD, she was recruited to work as a postdoctoral researcher in the MND laboratory at the Florey Institute. She is developing the use of chemogenetics to model cortical hyperexcitability in preclinical models of ALS in hope to better unravel the contribution of brain motor neurons in the pathophysiology of ALS.

 

Lezanne Ooi

Associate Professor Lezanne Ooi is an NHMRC Boosting Dementia Research Leadership Fellow and Group Leader of the Neurodevelopment and Neurodegeneration Lab. She established her lab in the Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute at the University of Wollongong in 2012. Her research specialty is cellular neuroscience and the regulation of neuronal function in neurodegenerative disease. Her lab has generated >100 induced pluripotent stem cell lines for disease modelling and drug discovery for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, motor neuron disease and vanishing white matter disease. Her lab uses electrophysiology, imaging and a range of cell and molecular biology techniques. 

 

Anthony White

Group Leader, Cellular and Molecular Neurodegeneration, Mental Health Program, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute. Anthony White obtained a PhD in neuroscience from Murdoch University and undertook a post-doctoral position at University of Melbourne investigating Alzheimer’s and prion diseases. He worked at Imperial College of Medicine, UK, studying immunotherapeutic approaches to prion diseases, and obtained an RD Wright Fellowship to establish a research group at the Department of Pathology, University of Melbourne investigating the role of biometals in neurodegeneration and development of metal-based drugs for treatment of these disorders. He was recruited to QIMR Berghofer in 2016, and is currently an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow. He is developing new human patient-based models of neurodegeneration including microglia, 3D cultures, and organoids to improve translational outcomes for neurotherapeutics.

 

Erika Gyengesi

Dr Erika Gyengesi is an associate lecturer at Western Sydney University (WSU), School of Medicine. She was awarded her PhD in 2010 from the Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary studying the basal forebrain cholinergic system in vivo. In 2007, she became a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University (USA), studying the effect of metabolic changes on synaptic input organization of the hypothalamus. In 2010 she joined the Prof George Paxinos at NeuRA where she was involved in anatomical mapping projects. In 2012, she joined the lab of Prof Gerald Muench, at the WSU for the group of Pharmacology. Her work since is focused on the effects of chronic neuroinflammation and ageing on the basal forebrain cholinergic system and its interconnected areas and natural anti-inflammatory drugs improving cognitive function loss in mice.

 

Caterina Scuderi

Caterina Scuderi, PharmD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of SAPIENZA University of Rome, Italy. Her research activity is centered on the field of neuropharmacology and, in particular, on the importance of glial cells in brain aging as well as in the pathogenesis of brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Her studies demonstrate the presence of important alterations of the cerebral homeostasis caused by glial abnormalities and support the hypothesis that the pharmacological manipulation of glial functionality may represent a promising and innovative therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative pathologies. Recently, A/Prof Scuderi co-authored a book that integrates the body of information accumulated in recent years revealing the active role of astrocytes in psychiatric disorders.

 

Markus Hofer

Dr Markus Hofer is Senior Lecturer at The University of Sydney and the consultant neuropathologist for the New South Wales Tissue Resource Centre. He is also Privatdozent at the Faculty of Medicine, Philipps University in Marburg, Germany. His research combines classical neuropathology with state-of-the-art molecular approaches to develop potential biomarkers and novel therapeutic approaches for interferon-induced disease. His research team collaborates with pharmaceutical companies including Biogen and Ionis Pharmaceuticals. His recent research focuses on the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which the cytokine interferon-alpha mediates its beneficial and detrimental effects. 

 

Amy Smith

Dr Amy Smith is a Research Fellow in glial cell biology at the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland. Her work focuses on the links between the immune system and the brain. She gained her PhD in microglial biology from the University of Auckland before carrying out her post-doctoral training in the UK, firstly at the University of Oxford investigating biomarkers of early immune dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease, and then at the UK Dementia Research Institute at Imperial College London leading human brain single-nuclei transcriptomics projects. Amy returned to New Zealand in 2021 to establish her research group, focusing on the role of inflammatory processes in neurodegeneration, using human brain tissue and human brain cell cultures. Her work takes a functional genomics approach - using large-scale human data to ask new questions about disease and identify new drug targets for neurological disorders.

 

David Gonsalvez

Dr David Gonsalvez completed his PhD at The University of Melbourne under A/Prof Colin Anderson, which improved our understanding of the proliferation dynamics and cellular growth rates in the development of the peripheral nervous system. In 2015, he was awarded an NH&MRC Peter Doherty Fellowship to work on brain development and identifying novel therapeutic targets that promote the repair of white matter following autoimmune injury. In 2020, he joined Monash University where he heads up the Neuro-Glial development and repair Lab and is also Deputy Director of the Monash Centre for Human Anatomy Education. In 2021, he commenced an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship and continue their work on mechanisms that regulate glial function in development and neuroplasticity and novel therapeutic targets for the treatment of disease such as Multiple Sclerosis and Motor Neuron Disease.

 

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December 2021 ANS 2021 online meeting & AGM Recordings

ANS 2021 online meeting and AGM video recordings

ANS2021 Online Program (PDF) 

ANS Plenary Lecture – Prof Bernard Balleine, University of New South Wales
The cortical and striatal circuits subserving goal-directed action  

2021 AW Campbell Award Lecture - Dr Christina Mo, University of Chicago
Transthalamic cortical pathways - underappreciated routes of information processing

Elspeth McLachlan Plenary Lecture - Prof Linda Richards, Queensland Brain Institute
Wiring the brain for interhemispheric communication

Eccles Plenary Lecture - Prof Lars Ittner, Macquarie University
On the role of the tau protein in Alzheimer's disease and beyond

2021 Nina Kondelos Plenary Lecture - Prof Elizabeth Coulson, Queensland Brain Institute
Causes and consequences of cholinergic degeneration with a focus on dementia

Lawrie Austin Plenary Lecture – Prof Clare Parish, Florey Institute of Neuroscience & Mental Health
Next generation stem cells therapies for Parkinson’s Disease

International Plenary Lecture -  Nobel Laureate, Prof Edvard Moser
Neural population dynamics of the entorhinal cortex

 ANS Distinguished Achievement Award presentation to Emeritus Prof. Laurie Geffen
Award presented by Emeritus Prof. Perry Bartlett 

Australasian Neuroscience Pioneers 
History of Australasian Neuroscience presented by Emeritus Prof. Laurie Geffen

Finalists for the ANS student body 3 minute thesis competition

ANS2021 Complete recording including ANS Annual General Meeting

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ANS2021 EMCR Collaboration Hub

ANS2021 EMCR Collaboration Hub

 

If you missed out on the ANS 2021 EMCR Collaboration Hub, you can view the recording here.

The EMCR committee put together this event because a recent survey of our EMCR members highlighted that networking and collaboration were two of the most important benefits they sought to gain from ANS membership. Good collaborations between researchers can yield exciting advances in neuroscience. But sometimes they can be tricky to navigate. The speakers in this webinar have a wealth of experience with start-up companies, industry partnerships, and clinical organisations and I know you will find their insights on collaboration, in all of its forms, very interesting.

Enjoy,

Rebecca San Gil, on behalf of the ANS EMCR Committee

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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ANS Illumina Research Award

Academic researchers that are members of ANS are invited to submit an application outlining how they will utilise genomics to advance their research. The winner will be selected by a panel of ANS members and will take into consideration how innovative the project is and its potential for follow up.  The winner will receive an Illumina Stranded mRNA Library Prep, Sequencing and Analysis of up to 96 samples; and/or methylation profiling of up to 96 samples on the Infinium Methylation Epic Kit.

Details on how to apply are available on the Illumina website.

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EMCR Collaboration Hub

Are you searching for a neuroscientist to collaborate with? We are compiling a list of ANS EMCRs who are open to new collaborations. Click the link below to search through a database of their fields of interest and skills of expertise and get the conversation started.

We will be updating this list throughout the year to ensure we have the most up to date information so keep an eye out for ANS communications.

Collaboration Hub database is available on Google Sheets.

To learn more about ANS Events for EMCR's please go to EMCR Events Page.

Brought to you by the ANS EMCR Committee. Get in touch with us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Satellite Meeting

Tertiary Teaching in Neuroscience
When: Thursday 2nd December and Friday 3rd December (half days)
Location: Virtual Event

This virtual satellite is open to anyone involved with neuroscience teaching in Australasia. You may be looking to reflect on your teaching practice, improve your teaching, or make teaching a more salient part of your career trajectory. The satellite will feature invited speakers, professional skill development, and networking opportunities.   

 

Neurotrauma
When: Friday 3rd December and Saturday 4th December
Location: Level 5, The Alfred Centre, 99 Commercial Road, Melbourne VIC 3004

The Australian Neurotrauma Workshop is the annual forum for Australian and NZ-based researchers in traumatic brain and spinal cord injury to come together. Over one and a half days, the program will be developed from abstract submissions. Scientific content typically covers both clinical and preclinical neurotrauma research, spanning from concussion through to severe brain injuries; across a lifetime from paediatrics through to the elderly; and includes comorbidities as well as chronic outcomes after neurotrauma. The workshop also provides unique opportunities for networking, mentoring and brainstorming, through both structured discussion periods as well as the workshop dinner.

 

Solving Sanfilippo Symposium 2021
When: Sunday 5th December
Location: Park Room, Pullman Hotel

Following the very successful inaugural Solving Sanfilippo Symposium held in Adelaide in March 2020, the Sanfilippo Children's Foundation is excited to hsot the Solving Sanfilippo Symposium 2021 alongside the 2021 ANS Conference.
The Solving Sanfilippo Symposium will bring together Australian researchers and their collaborators working on Sanfilippo syndrome and related childhood dementias to share results, progress and emerging directions.
Time will also be dedicated to discussion of the recently developed Global Roadmap of Sanfilippo Therapeutics with the goal to develp and prioritise initiatives around the Australian contribution to implementing this Roadmap.

Draft Agenda
1. Understanding Sanfilippo syndrome- neurobiology & pathophysiology
2. Progress in therapeutics and prognostic tools for Sanfilippo
3. Progress in therapeutics- preclinical & clinical research
4. PhD/ECR presentations
5. A global Roadmap for Sanfilippo- Australia's Role

 

 

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ANS 2020 Online Conference

Download Program here

9th December 2020 (10-5:30pm Australian EDST):  ANS2020 Online Conference and AGM PROGRAM

 10:00‐10:15am: Prof Cliff Abraham and A/Prof Kaylene Young

ANS President and Conference Executive Chair Welcome Delegates

 10:15‐10:45am: Chair – Dr Hamid Sohrabi (ANS Regional Representative for WA)

Dr Robyn Brown ‐ 2020 A.W Campbell Award Lecture

Title ‘Why do we overeat? Unravelling the neural mechanisms underlying

maladaptive eating behaviour’

 10:45‐11:15am: Chair – Dr Kristin Hillman (ANS Regional Representative for NZ)

Prof Kay Double ‐ 2020 Nina Kondelos Plenary Lecture

Title: Hiding in plain sight – what does a new pathology mean for Parkinson’s disease

aetiology?

 11:15‐12:15pm: Chair – Dr Ann‐Maree Vallence (Chair of ANS2020 Perth LOC)

Prof Kate Drummond – ANS2020 Eccles Plenary Lecture

Title: Quality of Life in Brain Tumour Patients ‐ Do we understand it and what can we

do about it?

 12:15‐12:45pm: Lunch break / Break‐out chats

 12:45‐1:15pm: Chair – A/Prof Alison Canty (ANS Regional Representative for Tasmania)

Dr Philip Ryan – 2019 A.W Campbell Award Lecture

Title: The neurocircuitry of fluid satiation

 1:15‐1:45pm: Chair – Dr Nathalie Dehorter (ANS Regional Representative for ACT)

Prof Erica Fletcher – 2019 Nina Kondelos Plenary Lecture

Title: The role of microglia in regulating retinal homeostasis

 1:45‐2:30pm: Chair – Mr Amr Abdeen (ANS Student Representative)

PhD student 3‐minute thesis finalists 

1) Indra Choudhury, Griffith University

2) Andres Vidal‐Itriago, Macquarie University

3) Megan Bakeberg, University of Western Australia & Perron Institute

4) Anastazja Gorecki, University of Western Australia & Perron Institute

5) Sophie Mathiesen, University of Otago

6) Jessica Madden, University of Newcastle

7) Sarah Thomas Broome, University of Technology Sydney

8) Nia Lopez, University of Newcastle

9) Jessica Moretti, University of Western Australia & Perron Institute

10) Leanne Jiang, University of Western Australia & Perron Institute

 

2:30‐3:00pm: Tea break

ANS Annual General Meeting

 3:00‐5:00pm: Chair ‐ Prof Thomas Fath (ANS Secretary)

Announcement of ANS Award recipients

Announcement of 3MT competition winners

 A/Prof Jess Nithianantharajah and Dr Tobias Merson

Looking Forward to ANS2021 in Melbourne

 Prof Peter Schofield

ANS President’s Closing Remarks

ABCAM LOGO 443C JPGBrain Function ARC and name underChen InstituteAPAC

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Sponsorship Committee

Thank you for visiting the ANS Sponsorship Committee page, more information will be provided shortly. Please stay tuned!

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Non-ANS Awards

An annual calendar of external awards and prizes can be found on the Australian Academy of Science website.


PhD Scholarship in Glial Biology / MS Research

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune and neurodegenerative disease that results in oligodendrocyte death and central nervous system (CNS) demyelination. Current treatments reduce the ability of peripheral immune cells to enter the CNS, however, there is a significant need for therapeutics that enhance the survival of myelinating oligodendrocytes and promote the generation of new oligodendrocytes from oligodendrocyte progenitor and neural stem cells. Dr Young’s glial research team (https://www.menzies.utas.edu.au/research/diseases-and-health-issues/research-groups/glial-research-team-young-group) forms part of the MS Research Flagship at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research, which combines laboratory, clinical, public health, genetics and economic research, to expedite the translation and implementation of MS research outcomes. The successful applicant will work in the laboratory and use human induced pluripotent stem cells, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing and / or cre-lox transgenic technology to understand MS pathology and oligodendrocyte cell biology, and develop novel neural repair strategies that can be evaluated through our associated clinical trials pathway. They will also work in our clinical facility to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a specific transcranial magnetic stimulation protocol for people with MS.

Applicants must:

  • have received a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree or an equivalent qualification in the field of neuroscience, including the completion of a laboratory-based research thesis. Preference will be given to applicants with a first class honours degree.
  • demonstrate their capacity to communicate well in English, apply mathematics in the work-place (including some knowledge of basic statistics), and work collaboratively with others.

TO APPLY:

  1. Please apply via the University of Tasmania’s portal to ensure you are eligible to undertake a PhD (https://www.utas.edu.au/international/studying/courses2/phd-or-research-masters/doctor-of-philosophy-phd)
  2. Email a cover letter (detail your education, research background and suitability) and 2 page CV to A/Prof Kaylene Young (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

This specific position closes on 1st October 2019 for applicants starting 4th November 2019. If you are interested in commencing a PhD with our team after this date, please get in touch and we may be able to support your application for competitive scholarships.


Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology

The international Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology is awarded annually to one young scientist for the most outstanding neurobiological research based on methods of molecular and cell biology conducted by him/her during the past three years.

Award prize: US$ 25,000

Entry deadline for the 2019 Prize: 15 June 2019

This deadline has now expired. The 2019 winner will be notified at the end of August. The next entry deadline is June 15, 2020.

Winner 2018 Eppendorf & Science Prize:

  • The German scientist Johannes Kohl, Ph.D. from Harvard University has won the 2018 Eppendorf & Science Prize for Neurobiology for his work on neural mechanisms underlying parental care.
  • Dr. Kohl’s research has revealed how a small population of genetically defined neurons controls the motor, motivational, hormonal and social aspects of parental behavior in males and females. These findings provide a new model for how specific components of a social behavior are generated at the neural circuit level. Unravelling the functional architecture of such circuits will advance our understanding of how the brain coordinates complex behaviors

It’s easy to apply! Learn more at www.eppendorf.com/prize.

 


 Georgina Sweet Awards for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science

The Georgina Sweet Awards for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science were created by Professor Leann Tilley as part of her Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship program to promote and support female scientists who demonstrate excellence in the area of Quantitative Biomedical Science.Quantitative Biomedical Science is Biological/Biomedical Research that employs a quantitative approach, particularly in areas such as Computational Biology, Biophysics, Bioinformatics, Biochemistry, Genomics, Structural Biology, Cell Biology etc.

Two new awards were established in 2016:

  • Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science: Up to three awards of $25,000 will be made each year to female researchers who demonstrate excellence in the area of quantitative biomedical science. Applications for this year’s award are now closed.
  • Georgina Sweet Travel Support for a Female Keynote Speaker in Quantitative Biomedical Science: Up to five awards of $3,000 are available each year to support attendance of a female keynote speaker at an Australian quantitative biomedical science conference. Applications are currently closed for conferences for this year, preference will be given to conferences that have not previously received funding. 

Both awards have been created as part of Professor Leann Tilley’s Laureate Fellowship (Bio21 Molecular Science and Biotechnology Institute, The University of Melbourne) commitment to foster, support and promote female researchers in quantitative biomedical sciences. Applications are open to researchers within Australia.

Plese visit here for application guidelines and forms or further details for both awards.


Keio Medical Science Prize

Awarded in the fields of basic medicine, clinical medicine, or life sciences closely related to medicine - 10 Million Yen

Closing date: 7 March 2019

Please visit here for more information.


V. Ambartsumian international Prize

Viktor Ambartsumian International Science Prize is one of the important awards in astronomy/astrophysics and related sciences. It is being awarded to outstanding scientists having significant contribution in physical-mathematical sciences from any country and nationality. The Prize is being awarded once every two years since 2010. During 2010-2016 it was established by the Armenian Government as USD 500,000. At present it is USD 300,000.

Closing date: 18 April 2020

Please visit here for more information.


Prime Minister's Prizes for Science

The Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science are Australia’s most prestigious awards for outstanding achievements in scientific research, research-based innovation, and excellence in science teaching.

The prizes recognise achievements across diverse disciplines and career stages. Recipients share $750 000 in prize money, and have the opportunity to showcase important work undertaken in their field.

Nominations are sought for Australia's national science and teaching awards-

Prizes for research:

  • Prime Minister’s Prize for Science ($250 000)
  • Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year ($50 000)
  • Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year ($50 000)

Prizes for innovation:

  • Prime Minister's Prize for Innovation ($250 000)
  • Prize for New Innovators ($50 000)

Prizes for science, mathematics or technology teaching:

  • Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Primary Schools ($50 000)
  • Prime Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Science Teaching in Secondary Schools ($50 000)

Closing date: to be announced shortly, usually in March

Please visit here for more information. 


Wise Prize for Education

Awarded for significant and lasting impact upon education at any level, demonstrating an inspiring and visionary approach – US $500,000

Closing date: usually in March.


International Prize for Biology

The International Prize for Biology was instituted in April of 1985 by the Committee on the International Prize for Biology. It aims to commemorate the sixty-year reign of Emperor Showa and his longtime devotion to biological research and also to offer tribute to His Majesty the Emperor Emeritus Akihito, who has strived over many years to advance the study taxonomy of gobioid fishes while contributing continuously to the developing of this Prize. The award ceremony is held every year.

Award prize: a medal and a prize of ten million (10,000,000) yen.

Closing date: 2 Fburary 2019

Prize announced: 20 August 2019

Please visit here for more information. 


Mahathir Science Award

Awarded to an individual or group in recognition of contributions and innovations towards solving problems in the tropics through Science, Technology and Innovation in 1) tropical medicine; 2) tropical agriculture; 3) tropical architecture and engineering; and 4) tropical natural resources

Award prize: US $100,000.00, a gold medal and a certificate.

Closing date: 31 October 2019

Please visit here for more information. 


King Faisal International Prize

Prizes in different fields of science and medicine.

Award prize: US $200,000.00

Closing date: 31 March 2020

Please visit here for more information. 


Australian Museum Eureka Prizes

The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes are the country’s most comprehensive national science awards, honouring excellence across the areas of research & innovation, leadership, science engagement, and school science. Awarding excellence in the fields of:

  • research & innovation
  • leadership
  • science engagement
  • school science

Award prize: $10 000

Closing date: 3 May 2019

Award announced: 28 August 2019

Please visit here for more information. 


Bower Award and Prize for achievement in Science

Awarded to individuals who have made significant contributions to understanding and quantifying perturbations of natural systems within the biosphere, atmosphere, or hydrosphere in the age of the Anthropocene

The 2020 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science 

Theme: Neural Networks for Machine Learning

Award prize: $250,000 USD

Deadline for Submissions: 31 May 2019

The Franklin Institute seeks nominations for the 2020 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science of individuals who have made significant contributions to the development of neural networks for machine learning—hardware or software systems designed as networks of artificial neurons that can be given raw data and trained to automatically discover abstract features that are relevant to detection, classification, or translation, resulting in desired outputs. Inputs could include text (machine translation), audio (speech recognition), or imagery (face recognition, scene understanding, photo sorting, image synthesis). Outputs could include categorical labels, structured outputs, or actuator commands. Such artificial neural networks have yielded effective approaches to solving a wide spectrum of challenging practical problems resistant to solution using earlier algorithmic machine learning techniques.

Please visit here for more information. 


Previous Awards

Prince Mahidol Award

Awarded to individual(s) or institutions(s) for their outstanding performance and/or research in medicine that contributes directly to the betterment of society. There will be one award in medicine and one in public health - US $100,000

Closing date: 31 May 2016

CSL Young Florey Medal

The 2016 CSL Young Florey Medal will be awarded to an Australian biomedical researcher for significant early career achievements in biomedical science and/or human health advancement for research conducted primarily in Australia

Closing date: 30 May 2016

Science Excellence Awards SA

Awarded to high achievers in research, industry and education in South Australia. The South Australian Scientist of the Year will receive $25 000 prize money and winners of all other categories will receive $10 000

Closing date: 29 April 2016

Young Tall Poppy Science Awards

Recognising research achievements in the sciences including engineering, mathematics, medical research and technology, alongside a passion and capacity to communicate science to the community. Nominations are for scientists under 35 years of age.

Closing date: 11 April 2016


Please also note that an annual calendar of external awards and prizes can be found on the Australian Academy of Science website.

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ANS Archive

Please find in the following up-to-date Council-approved documents.

ANS Strategic Plan

ANS Strategic Plan 2018-2023 (Summary Diagram)

ANS Strategic Plan 2018-2023 (Document)

 

ANS Survey 

ANS Survey 2020 (196 responses received)

 

ANS Policy and Procedures

Awards and Prizes

Campbell and Kondelos Award Lectures

Media Communications

Public Officer

Satellite Meetings

Terms of Reference - Program Committee

 

ANS Council Position Descriptions

President

Secretary 

Treasurer

 

ANS Position Descriptions

ACAN Chair

Communications Committee Chair

Early and Mid Career Committee Chair

Equity and Diversity Committee Chair

Neuroscience Education and Outreach Committee Chair

Student Body Committee Chair

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ANS2021 Online Resources

ANS2021 Online Series

ADNF Symposium VIII Webinar

POSTPONED - new date to be advised

Jess Nithianantharajah (Australia)
Moslecular Components of Flexible Behaviour

Robin Vigouroux (France)
Neural Stem Cell Lineage Progression in Developing Cerebral Cortex

Ruth Arkell (Australia) 
Evolution of Binocular Vision

Click here for flyer

 

ADNF Symposium IX
Thursday, 24 June 2021 
9am AEST 

Juliette Godin (France)
Pleiotropic activites of the (atypical?) Kinesin KIF21B during cirtical development

Simon Hippenmeyer (Austria)
Neural Stem Cell Lineage Progression in Developing Cerebral Cortex

Ruth Arkell (Australia) 
Modelling the complex inheritance pattern of Holoprosencephaly using mouse Experimental Genetics

Lachlan Harris (Australia)
Distinct transcriptional programs regulate Neural Stem Activation

Click here for flyer

ANS2021 Online Symposium
Tuesday, 22 June 2021 
12:00pm-1:30pm AEST

Angela Laird (Macquarie University Centre for MND Research)
Using zebrafish to explore treatments for neurodegenerative movement disorders

Karissa Barthelson (The University of Adelaide)
Dissecting the early cellular stresses underlying familial Alzheimer's disease using zebrafish as a model organism using zebrafish as a model organism

Louise O'Keefe (The University of Adelaide and SAHMRI)
Drosophila models for Neurodegenerative Disease

Webinar recording: https://vimeo.com/569143692

Click here for flyer

ANS EMCR Webinar - Featuring ACAN Alumni
Tuesday, 15 June 2021 
3pm AEST / 1pm WA / 5pm NZ

Dr Chris Roome, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology
Exploring dendritic integration in awake mice using simultaneous voltage and calcium imaging and electrophysiology

Dr Agnieszka Zbela, 
University of Tasmania
Shining light on TRK: Optogenetic control of BDNF/TrkB signalling

Dr Malinda Tantirigama, 
Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin
Three-photon imaging in the deep cortical layer 6

Webinar recording: Not yet available

Click here for flyer

ADNF Symposium VIII
Thursday, 27 May 2021
9:00am AEST

Sean Millard, Queensland Brain Institute

Patricia Jusuf, The University of Melbourne 
Visual vertebrate pipeline for assessing novel human GWAS gene candidates

Victor Borrell, CSIC Alicante Spain
Genetic evolution of cerebral cortex size determinants

Louise Cheng, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

Webinar recording: Not yet available

Click here for flyer

ANS2021 Online Symposium
Monday, 24 May 2021 
1-2:30pm AEST

Roger Marek, ARC DECRA Fellow, Sah Laboratory, Queensland Brain Institute
Prefrontal Circuits to Regulate Fear Extinction

Carlie Cullen, Head of the Glia in Cognition Lab, Menzies Institute for Medical Research
Does myelin remodelling facilitate learning? 

Marius Rosier, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Palmer Laboratory, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Biophysical properties of engram cells during learning

Webinar recording: https://vimeo.com/554530617

ADNF Symposium VII
Thursday, 29 April 2021 - 9:00am AEST

Jenny Gunnersen (Australia) 
New insights into mechanisms of excitatory synapse development 

Tommas Ellender (UK)
Embryonic neural progenitor pools and the generation of fine-scale neural circuits

Thomas Marissal (France)
Parvalbumin interneurons: the missing link between the micro and macroscopic alterations related to neurodevelopmental disorders?  

Click here for speaker bios

Webinar recording: Not yet available

EMCR Webinar
Tuesday, 13 April 2021 - 12 pm AEST

Hosts: Dr Adi Tarigoppula (University of Melbourne) and Dr Luan Luu (Macquarie University)

Speakers:
Dr Shelley L. Forrest
Macquarie University, Astroglial proteins are altered in frontotemporal tauopathies.

Dr Haruna Suzuki-Kerr
University of Auckland, Evaluating sheep as a large animal model in auditory neuroscience through characterization of sheep cochlea.

Dr Rocio Finol-Urdaneta
University of Wollongong, Novel ASIC1-active lead identification using high-throughput automated patch clamp.

Webinar recording: Not yet available


ADNF Symposium V
Thursday, 25 February 2021 9:00 - 11:00am AEST 

Song-Hai Shi (China) - Assembly of the neocortex

Lynette Lim (Belgium)
Shared and Unique Developmental Trajectories of Cortical Inhibitory Neurons

Alfredo Molina (UK)
Tuneable progenitor cells to build the cerebral cortex

Tomasz Nowakowski (USA)
Charting the molecular 'protomap' of the human cerebral cortex using single cell genomics

Webinar recording: https://vimeo.com/554534067

ACAN Alumni Symposia
22 February 2021 - 4:00-5:30pm AEDT

James Daniel, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen
Seeing dopamine by the light of AndromeDA - Using optical nanosensors to image dopamine release with high resolution

Lee Fletcher, Trustee, Biodiversity and Environmental Education Society
Determining what a neuron ACAN and can’t do.

Wendy Imlach, Monash University
Targeting changes in spinal signalling to treat chronic pain.

Louise Parr-Brownlie, University of Otago
Stimulating the brain to recover movements

Click here for speaker bios.

Webinar recording: https://vimeo.com/519344959

ANS EMCR Webinar
16 February 2021 - 12pm AEDT

Join us for the first webinar series of 2021! 

Dr Daniel Joyce, University of Nevada
Circadian visual sensitivity

Dr Robin Broersen, Australian National University
Binocular integration in the superior colliculus

Dr Natalie Groves, University of Queensland
Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) regulates inflammasome activation and neuropathology in Parkinson’s disease

Webinar recording: Not yet available


 

ANS2020 Online Series

 Sponsored by:

illumina full logo CMYK Black

 

Illumina Survey


 

Past webinars:

  • 2nd June 2020 (12pm Australian EST) : ANS EMCR Webinar
  • Host: Rebecca San Gil, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD
  • Speakers:
    • Dr Joanna Yau – Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of New South Wales. The role of basolateral amygdala parvalbumin neurons in aversive prediction error.
    • Mr Paul Marshall – Senior PhD Candidate, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. Dynamic regulation of Z-DNA in the mouse prefrontal cortex is required for fear extinction.
    • Dr Iris Wang – Assistant Professor, Shanghai Tech University. New Approaches to Study Axon Injury and Degeneration in Central Nervous System
  • Webinar recording: 
  • https://vimeo.com/432325752


  • 15th June 2020 (12-1:30pm Australian EST): New insights into the nature of pain mechanisms and potential clinical and translational advances
  • Chair: Andrew Gundlach
  • Greg Neely
  • Nicholas Veldhuis
  • Irina Vetter

  •  13th July 2020 (11:55am - 1:30pm AEST):  Brain injury in vulnerable populations
  • Chair: Sandy Shultz
  • Paul Van Donkelaar & Karen Mason: Exploring Incidence, Consequences, and Supports for Women Survivors of Traumatic Brain Injury in Intimate Partner Violence
  • Stuart McDonald: Diagnostic and recovery biomarkers for mild TBI: New insights from athletes and rodents
  • Melinda Fitzgerald: Predicting poor outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury

  •  3rd August 2020 (12pm Australian EST): ANS EMCR Webinar
  • Host: Juliette Cheyne, Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, NZ
  • Speakers: 
    • Dr Eduardo Albornoz Balmaceda, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Queensland, Peripheral immune contributions to neuroinflammation
    • Mr Simon Maksour, PhD Candidate, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Expression profiling REST and RCOR genes in neurogenesis using 2D and 3D human pluripotent stem cell models
    • Dr Yukti Vyas, Postdoctoral Research Fellow,​ University of Auckland, Influence of maternal high zinc diet on the development of Autism-associated behavioural and synaptic deficits in Shank3-knockout mice
    • Zhi Yi Ong, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of New South Wales, Hindbrain noradrenergic circuits in food intake control
  • Webinar recording: 
  • https://vimeo.com/user110880990/review/454266468/e33785f307


  • 10th August 2020 (2pm Australian EST): Perth LOC Symposium
  • Co-Chairs: Dr Nathalie Dehoerter and Dr Virginie Lam
  • Speakers:
    • Prof Zoltán Molnár, University of Oxford
    • Prof Orly Reiner, Weizmann Institute of Science
    • Dr Saskia Freytag, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, University of Western Australia (WA)
    • Dr Julian Heng, Curtin University (WA)
  • Webinar recording: 
  • https://vimeo.com/user110880990/review/447720971/44db7b4b7b


  • 14th September 2020 (12-1:30pm Australian EST): Digital Approaches to Neuroscience Education
  • Co-Chairs: Alison Canty and Kristin Hillman
  • Speakers:
    • Prof Charles Watson, University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland
    • A/Prof Alison Canty, University of Tasmania
    • A/Prof Lyndsey Collins-Praino, University of Adelaide
    • Professor Ramesh Rajan, Monash University
  • Webinar recording:
  • https://vimeo.com/user110880990/review/459988144/19fc3c7e73

 


12th October 2020 (12-1:30pm Australian AEST): Molecular insights into neuropsychiatric disorders

  • Chair: Kai Sempert
  • Speakers:
    • Cecilia Flores - Drugs of abuse in adolescence target the Netrin-1/DCC system to disrupt prefrontal cortex development
    • Helen Cooper - Understanding the role of actin-related autism genes in cortical development
    • Nathalie Dehorter - Overcoming the Cognitive and Motor Deficits in the Cntnap2 Mouse Model of Autism
    • Jozef Gecz - Stop the nonsense: Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay as a cellular ‘mRNA policeman’ and a fundamental regulator of brain development and function

  


19th October 2020 (12pm Australian EST): ANS EMCR Webinar

  • Host: Brenton Hordacre, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA
  • Speakers:
    • 12.05pm - Dr Cherry Mao, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Modelling of SCN2A encephalopathies using human stem cell-derived neurons
    • 12.20pm - Sarah Broome, PhD Candidate, University of Technology Sydney, Targeting neuroinflammation in Parkinson’s disease
    • 12.30pm - Dr Stephanie Rayner, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Macquarie University, Rapid, unbiased identification of protein inclusion components from patient post-mortem brain tissue using Biotinylation by Antibody Recognition (BAR)
    • 12.45pm - Jessica Moretti, PhD Candidate, Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Sciences, Concurrent LI-rTMS induces changes in c-fos expression but not behavioural effects during a progressive ratio task with adult ephrin-A2A5-/- mice


9th November 2020 (12-1:30pm Australian EDST): Rethinking energy balance: Neural circuits, peptides and mechanisms

  • Chair: Zhi Yi Ong
  • Speakers:
    • Amber L Alhadeff - Gut signaling engages coordinated homeostatic and reward circuitry
    • Chi Kin (Kenny) Ip - Transcriptomic profiling of NPYergic neurons in the central amygdala under chronic stress induced obesity
    • Garron Dodd - Intranasal Targeting Hypothalamic PTP1B and TCPTP Reinstates Leptin and Insulin Sensitivity and Promotes Weight Loss in Obesity
    • Sarah H Lockie - Targeting central feeding circuits to improve outcomes in cancer cachexia
  • Webinar Recording: 
  • https://vimeo.com/477894159

7th December 2020 (12pm Australian EST): ANS EMCR Webinar

  • Chair: Luke McAlary, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (IHMRI), University of Wollongong, NSW
  • Speakers:
  • Dr Ong Lin Kooi, The impact of cortical stroke beyond motor outcomes: A spatiotemporal analysis of neuronal death, gliosis, accumulation of amyloid-β as well as cognition.
  • Dr Anurag Singh, Tumour necrosis factor: a mediator of metaplasticity in healthy and diseased hippocampus
  • Dr Gilles Vanwalleghem, Shining a light on the enteric nervous system.
  • Bhedita Seewoo, Changes in the white matter microstructure of young male Sprague Dawley rats following chronic restraint stress and following low-intensity rTMS: a diffusion MRI study.
  • Nishita Bhembre, Synaptic compensation following oligomeric Aβ induced-dendritic spine loss. 

 

9th December 2020  (10-5:30pm Australian EDST): ANS2020 Conference & AGM Program

Click here for a PDF version of the Program

  • Chair: Professor Cliff Abraham
  • Speakers:

10:00‐10:15am: Prof Cliff Abraham and A/Prof Kaylene Young

ANS President and Conference Executive Chair Welcome Delegates

 

10:15‐10:45am: Chair – Dr Hamid Sohrabi (ANS Regional Representative for WA)

Dr Robyn Brown ‐ 2020 A.W Campbell Award Lecture

Title ‘Why do we overeat? Unravelling the neural mechanisms underlying

maladaptive eating behaviour’

 

10:45‐11:15am: Chair – Dr Kristin Hillman (ANS Regional Representative for NZ)

Prof Kay Double ‐ 2020 Nina Kondelos Plenary Lecture

Title: Hiding in plain sight – what does a new pathology mean for Parkinson’s disease

aetiology?

 

11:15‐12:15pm: Chair – Dr Ann‐Maree Vallence (Chair of ANS2020 Perth LOC)

Prof Kate Drummond – ANS2020 Eccles Plenary Lecture

Title: Quality of Life in Brain Tumour Patients ‐ Do we understand it and what can we

do about it?

 

12:15‐12:45pm: Lunch break / Break‐out chats

12:45‐1:15pm: Chair – A/Prof Alison Canty (ANS Regional Representative for Tasmania)

Dr Philip Ryan – 2019 A.W Campbell Award Lecture

Title: The neurocircuitry of fluid satiation

 

1:15‐1:45pm: Chair – Dr Nathalie Dehorter (ANS Regional Representative for ACT)

Prof Erica Fletcher – 2019 Nina Kondelos Plenary Lecture

Title: The role of microglia in regulating retinal homeostasis

 

1:45‐2:30pm: Chair – Mr Amr Abdeen (ANS Student Representative)

PhD student 3‐minute thesis finalists 

1) Indra Choudhury, Griffith University

2) Andres Vidal‐Itriago, Macquarie University

3) Megan Bakeberg, University of Western Australia & Perron Institute

4) Anastazja Gorecki, University of Western Australia & Perron Institute

5) Sophie Mathiesen, University of Otago

6) Jessica Madden, University of Newcastle

7) Sarah Thomas Broome, University of Technology Sydney

8) Nia Lopez, University of Newcastle

9) Jessica Moretti, University of Western Australia & Perron Institute

10) Leanne Jiang, University of Western Australia & Perron Institute

 

2:30‐3:00pm: Tea break

3:00‐5:00pm: Chair ‐ Prof Thomas Fath (ANS Secretary)

 

ANS Annual General Meeting

Announcement of ANS Award recipients

Announcement of 3MT competition winners

 

A/Prof Jess Nithianantharajah and Dr Tobias Merson

Looking Forward to ANS2021 in Melbourne

 

Prof Peter Schofield

ANS President’s Closing Remarks

Brain Function ARC and name underChen InstituteAPAC


 

Read More

ANS EMCR Webinar Invitation

2nd June 2020 (12pm Australian EST) : ANS EMCR Webinar

You are invited to a Zoom webinar. 

When: Jun 2, 2020 12:00 PM Brisbane
Topic: Australasian Neuroscience Society Webinar Series 2020 

Please click the link below to join the webinar: 
https://uqz.zoom.us/j/93451540218

Webinar ID: 934 5154 0218

Or iPhone one-tap : 
Australia: +61731853730,,93451540218# or +61861193900,,93451540218# 
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
Australia: +61 731 853 730 or +61 861 193 900 or +61 8 7150 1149 or +61 2 8015 6011 or +61 3 7018 2005 

Webinar ID: 934 5154 0218
International numbers available: https://uqz.zoom.us/u/acxuWCXSRf

Or an H.323/SIP room system:
H.323: 113.197.7.149 or 113.197.7.15
Meeting ID: 934 5154 0218
SIP: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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ANS2021 Online Series

ADNF Symposium XII

Thursday, 30 September 2021
9am AEST 

Log into the members area for Zoom details

Isabelle Brunet (France)
Neurovascular Development

Debbie Silver (USA)
Dynamic post-transcriptional control of cortical development

Robin Vigouroux (France) 
Evolution of binocular vision

Patricia Garcez (Brazil)
Beyond microcephaly: how Zika virus impacts brain development

Click here for flyer

ADNF Symposium VIII Webinar

POSTPONED - new date to be advised

Jess Nithianantharajah (Australia)
Moslecular Components of Flexible Behaviour

Robin Vigouroux (France)
Evolution of Binocular Vision

Click here for flyer

ADNF Symposium IX
Thursday, 24 June 2021 
9am AEST 

Log into the members area for Zoom details

Juliette Godin (France)
Pleiotropic activites of the (atypical?) Kinesin KIF21B during cirtical development

Simon Hippenmeyer (Austria)
Neural Stem Cell Lineage Progression in Developing Cerebral Cortex

Ruth Arkell (Australia) 
Modelling the complex inheritance pattern of Holoprosencephaly using mouse Experimental Genetics

Lachlan Harris (Australia)
Distinct transcriptional programs regulate Neural Stem Activation

Click here for flyer

ANS2021 Online Symposium
Tuesday, 22 June 2021 
12:00pm-1:30pm AEST

Log into the members area for Zoom details

Angela Laird (Macquarie University Centre for MND Research)
Using zebrafish to explore treatments for neurodegenerative movement disorders

Karissa Barthelson (The University of Adelaide)
Dissecting the early cellular stresses underlying familial Alzheimer's disease using zebrafish as a model organism using zebrafish as a model organism

Louise O'Keefe (The University of Adelaide and SAHMRI)
Drosophila models for Neurodegenerative Disease

Click here for flyer

ANS EMCR Webinar - Featuring ACAN Alumni
Tuesday, 15 June 2021 
3pm AEST / 1pm WA / 5pm NZ

Log into the members area for Zoom details

Dr Chris Roome, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology
Exploring dendritic integration in awake mice using simultaneous voltage and calcium imaging and electrophysiology

Dr Agnieszka Zbela, 
University of Tasmania
Shining light on TRK: Optogenetic control of BDNF/TrkB signalling

Dr Malinda Tantirigama, 
Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin
Three-photon imaging in the deep cortical layer 6

Click here for flyer

ADNF Symposium VIII
Thursday, 27 May 2021
9:00am AEST

Log into the members area for Zoom details

Sean Millard, Queensland Brain Institute

Patricia Jusuf, The University of Melbourne 
Visual vertebrate pipeline for assessing novel human GWAS gene candidates

Victor Borrell, CSIC Alicante Spain
Genetic evolution of cerebral cortex size determinants

Louise Cheng, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre

ANS2021 Online Symposium
Monday, 24 May 2021 
1-2:30pm AEST

Log into the members area for Zoom details

Roger Marek, ARC DECRA Fellow, Sah Laboratory, Queensland Brain Institute
Prefrontal Circuits to Regulate Fear Extinction

Carlie Cullen, Head of the Glia in Cognition Lab, Menzies Institute for Medical Research
Does myelin remodelling facilitate learning? 

Marius Rosier, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Palmer Laboratory, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health
Biophysical properties of engram cells during learning

ADNF Symposium VII
Thursday, 29 April 2021 - 9:00am AEST

Log into the members area for registration details.

Jenny Gunnersen (Australia) 
New insights into mechanisms of excitatory synapse development 

Tommas Ellender (UK)
Embryonic neural progenitor pools and the generation of fine-scale neural circuits

Thomas Marissal (France)
Parvalbumin interneurons: the missing link between the micro and macroscopic alterations related to neurodevelopmental disorders? 

Click here for speaker bios

EMCR Webinar
Tuesday 13 April 2021 - 12 pm AEST

Hosts: Dr Adi Tarigoppula (University of Melbourne) and Dr Luan Luu (Macquarie University)

Speakers:
Dr Shelley L. Forrest, Macquarie University
Astroglial proteins are altered in frontotemporal tauopathies.

Dr Haruna Suzuki-Kerr, University of Auckland
Evaluating sheep as a large animal model in auditory neuroscience through characterization of sheep cochlea.

Dr Rocio Finol-Urdaneta, University of Wollongong
Novel ASIC1-active lead identification using high-throughput automated patch clamp.

Log into the members area for Zoom details

ANS EMCR Webinar
16 February 2021 - 12pm AEDT

Join us for the first webinar series of 2021! Log into the members area for registration details

Dr Daniel Joyce, University of Nevada
Circadian visual sensitivity

Dr Robin Broersen, Australian National University
Binocular integration in the superior colliculus

Dr Natalie Groves, University of Queensland
Bruton’s Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) regulates inflammasome activation and neuropathology in Parkinson’s disease

ACAN Alumni Symposia
22 February 2021 - 4:00-5:30pm AEDT

Log into the members area for registration details.


James Daniel, 
Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen
Seeing dopamine by the light of AndromeDA - Using optical nanosensors to image dopamine release with high resolution

Lee Fletcher, Trustee, Biodiversity and Environmental Education Society
Determining what a neuron ACAN and can’t do.

Wendy Imlach, Monash University
Targeting changes in spinal signalling to treat chronic pain.

Louise Parr-Brownlie, University of Otago
Stimulating the brain to recover movements

Click here for speaker bios.

 


ANS 2020 Online Series was sponsored by:

illumina full logo CMYK Black

Download a printable timetable of the ANS2020 Online Series of webinars. 


Past webinars:

2nd June 2020 (12pm Australian EST) : ANS EMCR Webinar

  • Host: Rebecca San Gil, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD
  • Speakers:
    • Dr Joanna Yau – Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of New South Wales. The role of basolateral amygdala parvalbumin neurons in aversive prediction error.
    • Mr Paul Marshall – Senior PhD Candidate, Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland. Dynamic regulation of Z-DNA in the mouse prefrontal cortex is required for fear extinction.
    • Dr Iris Wang – Assistant Professor, Shanghai Tech University. New Approaches to Study Axon Injury and Degeneration in Central Nervous System

15th June 2020 (12-1:30pm Australian EST): New insights into the nature of pain mechanisms and potential clinical and translational advances

Chair: Andrew Gundlach

  • Greg Neely
  • Nicholas Veldhuis
  • Irina Vetter

 13th July 2020 (11:55am - 1:30pm AEST):  Brain injury in vulnerable populations

Chair: Sandy Shultz

  • Paul Van Donkelaar & Karen Mason: Exploring Incidence, Consequences, and Supports for Women Survivors of Traumatic Brain Injury in Intimate Partner Violence
  • Stuart McDonald: Diagnostic and recovery biomarkers for mild TBI: New insights from athletes and rodents
  • Melinda Fitzgerald: Predicting poor outcomes following mild traumatic brain injury

 3rd August 2020 (12pm Australian EST): ANS EMCR Webinar

  • Host: Juliette Cheyne, Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland, Auckland, NZ
  • Speakers:
    • Dr Eduardo Albornoz Balmaceda, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Queensland, Peripheral immune contributions to neuroinflammation
    • Mr Simon Maksour, PhD Candidate, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute, University of Wollongong, Expression profiling REST and RCOR genes in neurogenesis using 2D and 3D human pluripotent stem cell models
    • Dr Yukti Vyas, Postdoctoral Research Fellow,​ University of Auckland, Influence of maternal high zinc diet on the development of Autism-associated behavioural and synaptic deficits in Shank3-knockout mice
    • Zhi Yi Ong, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of New South Wales, Hindbrain noradrenergic circuits in food intake control        

10th August 2020 (2pm Australian EST): Perth LOC Symposium

  • Co-Chairs: Dr Nathalie Dehoerter and Dr Virginie Lam
  • Speakers:
    • Prof Zoltán Molnár, University of Oxford
    • Prof Orly Reiner, Weizmann Institute of Science
    • Dr Saskia Freytag, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, University of Western Australia (WA)
    • Dr Julian Heng, Curtin University (WA)

14th September 2020 (12-1:30pm Australian EST): Digital approaches to neuroscience education

  • Co-Chairs: Alison Canty and Kristin Hillman
  • Speakers:
    • Prof Charles Watson, University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland
    • A/Prof Alison Canty, University of Tasmania
    • A/Prof Lyndsey Collins-Praino, University of Adelaide
    • Professor Ramesh Rajan, Monash University 

12th October 2020 (12-1:30pm Australian AEST): Molecular insights into neuropsychiatric disorders

  • Chair: Kai Sempert
  • Speakers:
    • Cecilia Flores - Drugs of abuse in adolescence target the Netrin-1/DCC system to disrupt prefrontal cortex development
    • Helen Cooper - Understanding the role of actin-related autism genes in cortical development
    • Nathalie Dehorter - Overcoming the Cognitive and Motor Deficits in the Cntnap2 Mouse Model of Autism
    • Jozef Gecz - Stop the nonsense: Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay as a cellular ‘mRNA policeman’ and a fundamental regulator of brain development and function 

19th October 2020 (12pm Australian EST): ANS EMCR Webinar

  • Host: Brenton Hordacre, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA
  • Speakers:
    • 12.05pm - Dr Cherry Mao, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Modelling of SCN2A encephalopathies using human stem cell-derived neurons
    • 12.20pm - Sarah Broome, PhD Candidate, University of Technology Sydney, Targeting neuroinflammation in Parkinson’s disease
    • 12.30pm - Dr Stephanie Rayner, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Macquarie University, Rapid, unbiased identification of protein inclusion components from patient post-mortem brain tissue using Biotinylation by Antibody Recognition (BAR)
    • 12.45pm - Jessica Moretti, PhD Candidate, Perron Institute for Neurological and Translational Sciences, Concurrent LI-rTMS induces changes in c-fos expression but not behavioural effects during a progressive ratio task with adult ephrin-A2A5-/- mice

 


9th November 2020 (12-1:30pm Australian EDST): Rethinking energy balance: Neural circuits, peptides and mechanisms

  • Chair: Zhi Yi Ong
  • Speakers:
    • Amber L Alhadeff - Gut signaling engages coordinated homeostatic and reward circuitry
    • Chi Kin (Kenny) Ip - Transcriptomic profiling of NPYergic neurons in the central amygdala under chronic stress induced obesity
    • Garron Dodd - Intranasal Targeting Hypothalamic PTP1B and TCPTP Reinstates Leptin and Insulin Sensitivity and Promotes Weight Loss in Obesity
    • Sarah H Lockie - Targeting central feeding circuits to improve outcomes in cancer cachexia

 7th December 2020 (12pm Australian EST): ANS EMCR Webinar

  • Chair: Luke McAlary, Illawarra Health and Medical Research Institute (IHMRI), University of Wollongong, NSW
  • Speakers:
  • Dr Ong Lin Kooi, The impact of cortical stroke beyond motor outcomes: A spatiotemporal analysis of neuronal death, gliosis, accumulation of amyloid-β as well as cognition.

  • Dr Anurag Singh, Tumour necrosis factor: a mediator of metaplasticity in healthy and diseased hippocampus

  • Dr Gilles Vanwalleghem, Shining a light on the enteric nervous system.

  • Bhedita Seewoo, Changes in the white matter microstructure of young male Sprague Dawley rats following chronic restraint stress and following low-intensity rTMS: a diffusion MRI study.

  • Nishita Bhembre, Synaptic compensation following oligomeric Aβ induced-dendritic spine loss.


 9th December 2020 (10-5:30pm Australian EDST):  ANS2020 Online Conference and AGM PROGRAM

 10:00‐10:15am: Prof Cliff Abraham and A/Prof Kaylene Young

ANS President and Conference Executive Chair Welcome Delegates

 10:15‐10:45am: Chair – Dr Hamid Sohrabi (ANS Regional Representative for WA)

Dr Robyn Brown ‐ 2020 A.W Campbell Award Lecture

Title ‘Why do we overeat? Unravelling the neural mechanisms underlying

maladaptive eating behaviour’

 10:45‐11:15am: Chair – Dr Kristin Hillman (ANS Regional Representative for NZ)

Prof Kay Double ‐ 2020 Nina Kondelos Plenary Lecture

Title: Hiding in plain sight – what does a new pathology mean for Parkinson’s disease

aetiology?

 11:15‐12:15pm: Chair – Dr Ann‐Maree Vallence (Chair of ANS2020 Perth LOC)

Prof Kate Drummond – ANS2020 Eccles Plenary Lecture

Title: Quality of Life in Brain Tumour Patients ‐ Do we understand it and what can we

do about it?

 12:15‐12:45pm: Lunch break / Break‐out chats

 12:45‐1:15pm: Chair – A/Prof Alison Canty (ANS Regional Representative for Tasmania)

Dr Philip Ryan – 2019 A.W Campbell Award Lecture

Title: The neurocircuitry of fluid satiation

 1:15‐1:45pm: Chair – Dr Nathalie Dehorter (ANS Regional Representative for ACT)

Prof Erica Fletcher – 2019 Nina Kondelos Plenary Lecture

Title: The role of microglia in regulating retinal homeostasis

 1:45‐2:30pm: Chair – Mr Amr Abdeen (ANS Student Representative)

PhD student 3‐minute thesis finalists x 10 Speakers (TBC)

2:30‐3:00pm: Tea break

 3:00‐5:00pm: Chair ‐ Prof Thomas Fath (ANS Secretary)

 ANS Annual General Meeting

Announcement of ANS Award recipients

Announcement of 3MT competition winners

 A/Prof Jess Nithianantharajah and Dr Tobias Merson

Looking Forward to ANS2021 in Melbourne

 Prof Peter Schofield

ANS President’s Closing Remarks

ABCAM LOGO 443C JPGBrain Function ARC and name underChen InstituteAPAC


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2021 Eccles Lecturer Nominations

The ANS Council calls for nominations for the Eccles Plenary Lecturer for the ANS Annual Scientific Meeting to be held in Melbourne, 2021.

The Eccles Plenary Lecture was named after Sir John Eccles, and is jointly sponsored by ANS and the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia. The speaker is usually an Australian or New Zealand scientist who has made a significant contribution to neuroscience research and/or research translation. The speaker presents at both the annual ANS meeting and the annual meeting of the Neurosurgical Society, usually in the same year. The speaker is nominated by each society in alternating years.

All nominations must be submitted online via Currinda (link below). If you already have a profile, simply log in with your details. If you are new to the system you will first need to create a profile (this is a simple step and will take less than two minutes to set up). An automatic confirmation email will be sent once your submission is complete. Submissions can be edited or updated until the closing date of Friday, 29 May 2020.

ANS Click Here

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Plenary Speakers

ANS 2022 Presidential International Plenary

'Imaging synaptic changes in Alzheimer’s disease'

Professor Tara Spires-Jones, University of Edinburgh

 Tara headshotDRI

Tara Spires-Jones is Professor of Neurodegeneration at the University of Edinburgh where she is Deputy Director of the Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences and a UK Dementia Research Institute Group Leader. Her research focuses on the mechanisms and reversibility of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, other degenerative brain diseases, and ageing. Working with a vibrant group of researchers, she is trying to understand why synapses and neurons become dysfunctional and die in these diseases in order to develop effective therapeutic strategies. Her work has shown that soluble forms of the pathological proteins amyloid beta and tau contribute to synapse degeneration, and that lowering levels of these proteins can prevent and reverse phenotypes in model systems. Further, she has pioneered high-resolution imaging techniques in human post-mortem brain and found evidence that these proteins accumulate in synapses in human disease.  Tara Spires-Jones has published over 100 peer reviewed papers which have been cited over 13,000 times.

In addition to her research, Prof Spires-Jones is passionate about communicating scientific findings to the public and policy makers; increasing the rigour and reproducibility in translational neuroscience; promoting inclusivity and diversity in science; and supporting career development of neuroscientists. She is founding editor of the translational neuroscience journal Brain Communications, a member of the Board of Reviewing Editors at Science, Section Editor a the European Journal of Neuroscience, and is on the editorial boards of Neuron and Cell Reports. She was also a founding member of the FENS-Kavli Network of Excellence, which works to promote the future of European Neuroscience. She served as a member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council from 2016-2019 advising the Scottish Government on science policy, and in 2018 was elected as a term Member of the European Dana Alliance of the Brain promoting public engagement with neuroscience. In 2021, Tara was appointed the president-elect of the British Neuroscience Association and will serve as president of this national society from 2023-2025.

Prior to moving to Scotland in 2013, Tara Spires-Jones ran a group studying Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis with an emphasis on synaptic pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School, where she was Instructor from 2006-2011 and Assistant Professor from 2011-2013.  She completed graduate training (MSc and DPhil) at the University of Oxford from 1999-2003, and undergraduate training at the University of Texas at Austin from 1994-1999.

 

ANS Plenary

'Deciphering the role of autism genes in cortical development: from stem cells to synapses'

Professor Helen Cooper, Queensland Brain Institute

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Professor Helen Cooper is the Deputy Director (Research) and Head of the Neural Migration Laboratory at the Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland. She completed her PhD in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Melbourne. She then pursued her postdoctoral studies at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, before establishing her own laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne to study the molecular mechanisms governing the development of the neocortex. Her group has identified unexpected roles for axon guidance receptors in neural stem cell biology, neurogenesis and synaptogenesis. These studies have revealed that mutations in these receptors contribute to the aetiology of cortical malformations and have led to the identification of molecular signaling networks comprising genes implicated in autism and schizophrenia.

 

Elspeth McLachlan Plenary

'Gene-environment interactions modulating brain function within and between generations'

Professor Anthony Hannan, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne

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Professor Hannan received his undergraduate training and PhD from the University of Sydney.  He was then awarded a Nuffield Medical Fellowship at the University of Oxford, where he subsequently held other research positions before returning to Australia to establish a laboratory at the Florey Institute. He has received various fellowships and awards and is currently a Theme Leader and Laboratory Head at the Florey Institute, University of Melbourne. Prof. Hannan and colleagues provided the first demonstration in any genetic animal model that environmental stimulation can be therapeutic. This has led to new insights into gene-environment interactions in various brain disorders, including Huntington’s disease, dementia, depression, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders. His laboratory at the Florey explores how genes and the environment combine via experience-dependent plasticity in the healthy and diseased brain. Their research includes models of brain disorders which involve cognitive and affective dysfunction, investigated at behavioural, cellular and molecular levels so as to identify pathogenic mechanisms and novel therapeutic targets. This has recently incorporated gut microbiome studies and the microbiota-gut-brain axis.  Furthermore, in recent years his group has been exploring transgenerational epigenetic inheritance of acquired traits in response to paternal environmental exposures and experience.

 

Lawrie Austin Plenary

'Understanding the brain through the nose'

Professor John Bekkers, Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, Australian National University

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John Bekkers is a cellular neuroscientist who is well-known for his work on the neurophysiology of the primary olfactory (piriform) cortex. John completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge with Richard Keynes, working on squid axon, then spent five years as a postdoc in the United States with Chuck Stevens, first at Yale Medical School, later at the Salk Institute in San Diego. In the early 1990s John returned to Australia to take up a QEII Fellowship at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, ANU. He has worked on a range of topics, including long-term potentiation in the hippocampus, autapses in neuronal cultures, and synaptic integration in the neocortex. About 15 years ago he decided to focus on ‘the unfashionable end of the brain’ by studying the piriform cortex, and has helped to make the piriform a burgeoning area of research. John has also made important contributions to research training, helping to establish the Australian Course in Advanced Neuroscience (ACAN) and running ACAN for more than a decade. His service was recognised by the 2016 Award for Education in Neuroscience from the US Society for Neuroscience. John is currently Head of the Division of Neuroscience at ANU.

 

Eccles Plenary

'Neurosurgery on the experimental spectrum'

Professor Christopher Lind, University of Western Australia

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Christopher Lind is a busy neurosurgeon who works in Perth, Western Australia. He studied at the University of Otago Medical School, gained experience in Boston, USA, worked as a young doctor in Auckland, including a research attachment in the neuroscience laboratory of Professor Mike Dragunow, and moved to Perth during his advanced neurosurgical training. He spent a short time in Bristol and Oxford, UK after fellowship and has enjoyed working in the Neurosurgical Service of WA with an academic secondment to the University of Western Australia. He was Director of Neurosurgical Training for some years and served on the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia training board and is an NSA Past-President. He has strong clinical and research interests in movement disorders, facial pain, cerebral hypo-perfusion, colloid cysts, stereotactic and cerebrovascular neurosurgery. Chris has a gait laboratory for studying movement disorder patients undergoing deep brain stimulation surgery and a microanastomosis laboratory for practising cerebral artery bypass. He has published on surgical techniques in stereotaxy, neuro-endoscopy and microsurgery. He has trained neurosurgical registrars and UWA higher degree students in microsurgery and clinical research methods. Chris is very interested in how practical physiologic-anatomical reasoning and experimental data interact in producing neurosurgical decisions. That is, the nature of neurosurgical judgement.

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ANS 2020 Committee

ANS 2020 Local Organising Committee

AVM Brief

SH Brief

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JCBB Overview

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Destination Perth, Western Australia

Getting Here

No matter where you are in the world, Perth and Western Australia are closer than you think. Sixteen international airlines operate scheduled services to and from Perth, bringing the world to Western Australia.

Perth Airport is a modern facility approximately half an hour away from the centre of Perth. The international and domestic terminals are easily accessible by car, taxi and bus. Further information regarding both international and domestic airlines that fly into Perth can be found at www.perthairport.com.au.

So sit back and relax. Perth is nearer than you think.

For conference delegates, frequent services allow fast access to regional shopping centres, Perth’s not-to-be-missed beaches, the café culture of historic Fremantle, and the water playground at Mandurah.

For adventure lovers who wish to explore further afield, the Prospector train links Perth and the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie with a daily service (twice a day on Monday and Friday). The 655km journey takes 6hrs 45mins.

Experience Perth

Wander around the city’s attractions like the Perth Mint and Swan Bell Tower, browse the city’s shopping malls and the trendy King Street strip or enjoy a cruise on the river stopping by Perth Zoo along the way. If swimming, surfing, snorkelling or just lounging at a beachside café is more your style the white sands of the famed Sunset Coast are just 20 minutes west of the city. Golfers will be spellbound by the variety of lush courses surprisingly close to the city centre, and encounters with kangaroos and emus make for a memorable 18 holes. Catch a train, join a cruise or drive to the nearby colourful working port of Fremantle. Enjoy the carnival atmosphere of street performers outside the markets, delight in the buzz of activity along the “Cappuccino Strip” or enjoy the fresh seafood at Fishing Boat Harbour.

Less than 50 minutes south of Perth, the protected waterways, beaches and excellent boating and fishing activities of Mandurah are a day-tripper’s delight. The beautiful facilities of the Mandurah Ocean Marina and the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre.

For an island experience, board a ferry to Rottnest, just 25 minutes off the coast. Enjoy the laid-back beachside holiday atmosphere, quiet coves and crystal clear waters. Or discover the Swan Valley, Western Australia’s oldest wine growing region just 30 minutes east of the city. An endless choice of wineries, micro breweries, stylish restaurants, quaint cafés and art and craft galleries await to satisfy your palate and your palette.

Perth

 Explore WA App

Whether you are visiting Western Australia for the first time or rediscovering this extraordinary State download your free iPhone app “Explore WA” today. With photos, videos and itineraries on each of the state’s five regions you can share your favourites with friends and family via email, facebook and twitter.

You can search for accommodation, events, car hire, tours and transport. Plus with four fantastic games to test your skills against WA’s extraordinary wildlife and attractions you’ll start thinking you’re actually there!

Download it free or visit the iTunes app store on your iPhone. Information provided courtesy of Tourism Western Australia www.westernaustralia.com

 Escape to the Coral Coast

Pristine beaches, exotic marine life, national reserves and the bluest ocean you’ll see anywhere on earth can all be found in Australia’s Coral Coast. Explore the unique rock formations of the Pinnacles, meet the smiling dolphins of Monkey Mia or travel to Exmouth, home of the internationally renowned Ningaloo Reef – one of the few places in the world where you can swim with giant whale sharks and manta rays. Inland is just as exciting, as carpets of wildflowers burst into colour during the wildflower season (September to November).

Coral COast

Adventure in the Golden Outback

The vast clear skies and theatrical landscapes of the Golden Outback region are the setting for true outback adventure. To experience the 1890’s Goldrush, look for tours around mining towns and settlements built by pioneers. Visit the Super Pit in Kalgoorlie, one of the largest open-pit mines in the southern hemisphere, explore old mine shafts or try your hand at gold-panning. Slip into in the laid back atmosphere of Australia’s Golden Outback rural life among heritage buildings, friendly pubs and hospitable farm-stays. In extreme contrast, the rugged coastline and islands around Esperance offer amazing eco-experiences.

outback

Delight in the South West

From towering forests to whale watching, fine food and wine to world-class surfing, Australia’s South West offers some of the most varied travel experiences in Western Australia. Margaret River’s outstanding wines have put it on the international map, and the area is popular all year round for forest hiking, exploring underground caves, and sampling the divine local produce in the town’s superb restaurants. Visit the pretty seaside town of Busselton, the famous Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk in Walpole and experience a whale watching boat trip along the Southern Ocean from Albany, right up to Augusta on the Indian Ocean coast.

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2020 ASM Cancellation Notice

Cancellation of the ANS 2020 ASM

On behalf of ANS I am writing to inform you that the ANS 2020 conference in Perth has been cancelled. This was a challenging decision, made by the ANS Council after reviewing information from Governments and health authorities as well as institutions in Australia and New Zealand related to the current COVID-19 situation and the risk to the wider community stemming from the virus. We’ve also taken into account the concerns of speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, stakeholders and potential attendees regarding their commitment to the conference. We feel that taking this approach to cancel the conference is a responsible and appropriate response to this crisis.

Of course this is most unfortunate, particularly as we were planning a 40th anniversary celebration of the Society at the meeting. So I’m very sorry to have to pass on this news, although it probably won’t come as much of a surprise. At this point I should give a huge vote of thanks to the Perth LOC, led by Julian Heng, Ann-Maree Vallence and Stuart Hodgetts, for all the hard work and planning they have put into the conference already. Hopefully we can return to Perth in the future and take advantage of the great spade-work that they have carried out for us.

One of the outcomes of this decision is that all the symposia proposals, that many of you have worked so hard to put together, will now lapse. But do hold that thought because we’ll be needing proposals once again in 2021 and you are most welcome to resubmit at that time. There is some good news, however, namely that all our plenary lecturers for 2020 have agreed to have their lectures postponed until the 2021 meeting in Melbourne. This includes the Nobel Prize winner Edvard Moser.

So where to from here? The ANS Council has established a working party, led by Kaylene Young, to establish an online presence for ANS that will include member-only virtual seminars of all kinds, symposia, and other kinds of events. The aim is to help keep the ANS family connected and building their scientific knowledge, collaborations, and awareness of the neuroscience research landscape across Australia and New Zealand. We will also need to have an AGM (online), still tentatively scheduled for early December, plus a half-day set of online talks to conclude 2020. We welcome, of course, other ideas that any of you might have to help us plug the gap left by the cancelled conference for the 2020-2021 year.

Although we will not have our in-person meeting this year, we still very much welcome your membership renewal (and many thanks to those who have renewed already). Your membership is needed to help ANS keep going and able to provide both existing and new benefits to neuroscientists across Australasia this year.  We need to stay connected, and we need your help to achieve this!

With very best regards,

Cliff Abraham

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