Vis à vis in the Brain: The Neuron-Glia Interface

The human mind is conventionally recognized as only derived from neuronal activity, with the dynamic activity of neurons involved in the transfer and processing of information. Glial cells, traditionally thought of simply as the “glue” of the nervous system, were thought to be uninvolved in information processing and only ensuring homeostatic maintenance. Recent evidence has now largely recognized that these cell types play many critical roles in the development and function of the brain.

Our conference entitled “Vis à vis in the Brain: The Neuron-Glia Interface” will bring together experts from Neuroscience, Neurotechnology, and Neuroimmunology to highlight and present the most recent developments and unpublished discoveries. It will take place at the Medical Center-University of Freiburg, just a few minutes from the bustling city center.

We cordially invite everyone to join us in Freiburg, inviting participants at all career stages working to participate in this meeting, discussing and exchanging latest discoveries and findings with regards to the Neuron-Glia interface.

Wednesday Sept. 13, 2023

07:30- 09:00 | Registration Hörsaal Killianstraße
09:00-09:15 | Opening and Welcome | Frederik Wenz (Freiburg)
09:15-10:00 | Keynote Lecture | Bench-to-beside and vice versa in glioblastoma: failures and how to overcome them | Michael Weller (Zürich)

10:00-10:30 | Coffee Break

10:30-14:10 | Session I: Neuron and Glia in Health
Chair: Lukas Amann

10:30-11:00 | Towards a dynamic quantitative understanding of neuronal-immune interactions in the brain | Francesca Peri (Switzerland)
11:00-11:30 | "The myeloid side of the brain" | Marco Prinz (Freiburg)
11:30-12:00 | Panglial gap junction coupling contributes to neuronal energy supply in the thalamus | Christian Steinhäuser (Bonn)

12:00-13:00 | Lunch Break

13:00-13:30 | Layers of complexity -  Myeloid immunity in the outer meninges | Lukas Amann (Freiburg)
13:30-14:00 | Shutting down glioblastoma: How astrocytes contribute to tumor progression | Lior Mayo (Israel)
14:00-14:10 | Selected Short Talk: Microglial network dynamics are defined by the harmonic counterpoise of colonization, expansion, and morphological development systems | Lance Bosch (Freiburg)

14:10-14:45 | Coffee Break

14:45 - 17:05 | Session II: Bench to Bedside Research
Chair: Roman Sankowski

14:45-15:15 | Dopamine for neurorehabilitation after stroke – a translational approach | Jonas Hosp (Freiburg)
15:15-15:45 | Therapy-induced Cellular Plasticity in GBM: Challenge of Hitting a Moving Target | Atique Ahmed (Chicago)
15:45-16:15 | Visualizing glioma-neutron interacton - bringing bench to OR | Daniel Delev (Aachen)
16:15-16:25 | Selected Short Talk: Photodynamic Therapy in Gliomas | Ioannis Vassilikos (Freiburg)
16:25-16:35 | Selected Short Talk: Network analysis integrating microRNAs and clinical data to determine prognostic outcome in pediatric low-grade glioma patients | Giuseppina Catanzaro (Rome)
16:35-16:45 | Selected Short Talk: Transcriptional dysregulation of myelination in the gray matter of frontal lobe focal cortical dysplasia type II | Katharina Donkels (Freiburg)
16:45-16:55 | Selected Short Talk: Unveiling Mesenchymal-like Transition in BRAF-mutant Glioblastoma under Targeted Therapy via Autografted Human Cortical Culture System | Junyi Zhang (Freiburg)
16:55-17:05 | Selected Short Talk: 5-Aminolevulinic Acid metabolism is enriched in activated macrophages of the tumor microenvironment | Jakob Strähle (Freiburg)
17:05-17:15 | Selected Short Talk: CA2 and beyond – Exploring the epileptic network | Ute Häussler (Freiburg)

17:30-20:30 | Poster Session &  Fingerfood

Thursday Sept. 14, 2023

08:30-12:50 | Session III: Cancer Meets Neuroscience
Chair: Jürgen Beck & Vidhya Ravi

08:30-09:15 | Keynote Lecture | How incurable brain tumors use neurodevelomental mechanisms to thrive | Frank Winkler (Heidelberg)

09:15-09:45 | Heterogeneity and plasticity of the Glioblastoma ecosystem upon treatment - probing patient avatars towards clinically-relevant outcomes | Anna Golebiewska (Luxembourg)
09:45-10:00 | Enabling the next generation of single cell and spatial experiments | 10X Genomics (Sponsor Talk)
10:00-10:30 | Macrophage heterogeneity in normal an glioblastoma-bearing brain | Jo Van Grinderachter (Brussels)

10:30-11:00 | Coffee Break

11:00-11:30 | The role of vascular microenvironment and glioblastoma cell plasticity in resistance to radiotherapy, chemotherapy or surgical resecton| | Giorgio Seano (Paris)
11:30-12:00 | Metabolic checkpoint blockade boosts anti-cancer immunity in brain metastasis | Lisa Sevenich (Frankfurt)
12:00-12:30 | Spatial mapping of diffuse glioma microenvironment with multiplex-immunohistochemistry | Kirsi Rautajoki (Finland)
12:30-12:40 | Selected Short Talk: How do glioblastoma cells adapt their metabolism when escaping on neurons? | Thomas Daubon (Bordeaux)
12:40-12:50 | Selected Short Talk: Neural-network learning-based deconstruction of the developmental genetic programs in glioblastoma and neuroblastoma | Yizhou Hu (Stockholm)

12:50-14:30 | Lunch Break & Group Photo

14:30-17:50 | Session IV: Neurodegeneration & Neuroinflammation
Chair: Dieter Henrik Heiland & Paolo d'Errico

14:30-15:00 | TNF-mediated synaptic plasticity: from mice to humans | Andreas Vlachos (Freiburg)
15:00-15:30 | Regulation of phagoyte phenotypes in autoimmune CNS inflammation | Martin Kerschensteiner (Munich)
15:30-16:00 | Gut Macrophages Modulate Brain Neuropathology in Parkinson’s disease | Sebastian de Schepper (London)

16:00-16:30 | Coffee Break

16:30-17:00 | Consequences of neonatal matemal separation in a rat model of prematurity | Pierrick Poisbeau (Strassbourg)
17:00-17:30 | Organoid-based platforms for modeling human brain environment-dependent microglia phenotypes | Simon Schaefer (Munich)
17:30-17:40 | Selected Short Talk: Microbial triggering of myelin-specific immune cells in the gut drives central nervous system inflammation | Lena Katharina Siewert (Basel)
17:40-17:50 | Selected Short Talk: Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation- (rTMS-) induced plasticity is associated with changes in N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modified RNA | Elli-Anna Balta (Freiburg)

Friday Sept. 15, 2023

08:30 - 12:20 | Session V: Neurotechnologies
Chair: Kevin Joseph & Benjamin Newland

08:30-09:00 | Magnetic particles to the rescue: Uniting imagine and therapy with MPI | Ulrich Hofmann (Freiburg)
09:00-09:30 | Scalable, Targeted Single Cell Sequencing for Multi-Omics | Parse Biosciences (Sponsor Talk)
09:30-10:00 | Novel neural interfacing approaches using ultra conformable implants | Alejandro Carnicer (Untied Kingdom)

10:00 - 10:30 | Coffee Break

10:30-11:00 | Human glial development in organoid models and brain cancer | Steven Sloan (Atlanta)
11:00-11:30 | Cell-electronic biointerfaces for functional recording of neural networks, from primary culture to brain organoids | 3Brains (Sponsor Talk)
11:30-12:00 | Challenges in cell therapies for brain repair: the host and hostile diseased brain | Sofia Grade (Austria)
12:00-12:10 | Selected Short Talk: Fabricating multifunctional hydrogels for improved neural interfaces | Christina Myra Tringides (Zurich)
12:10-12:20 | Selected Short Talk: Label-free, minimally invasive molecular spectroscopy in deep brain regions with vibrational fiber photometry | Filippo Pisano (Genova) 

12:20-14:00 | Lunch Break

14:00-15:00 | Session VI: Panel Discussion: Neuroethics in Era of AI
Philipp Kellmeyer (Freiburg), Jürgen Beck (Freiburg), Peter Reinacher (Freiburg)

15:00 - 15:30 | Coffee Break

15:30 - 16:15 | Keynote Lecture | Deciphering orga-metabolic networks in health and disease | Angelika Rmbold (Freiburg)

16:15 - 16:30 | Closing Remarks & Poster Prize

Registration Fee

On-Site participation

Bachelor/Master Students:40 €
PhD Students:170 €
Post-Doc/PI: 210 €
Commercial: 230 €

Online participation
50 €

Poster Size

Accepted posters will be asked to produce a poster for display at the conference. Presenters are asked to take note of the following guidelines when producing their poster:

Maximum poster size is A0 (0.84 x 1.19m) (portrait orientation)
Keep text to a minimum
Ensure any text is in large font
Use graphs, charts, and/or tables
Ensure contents have a logical flow
Make it colourful

Removal and collection of posters at the end of the display period remains the responsibility of the presenter. Posters not removed by the indicated take down time will be removed and disposed of.

Medical Center University of Freiburg
Hörsaal Killianstrasse
Killianstrasse 5
79106 Freiburg (Germany)

B6 on the map (click to enlarge)

How to reach the Medical Center - University of Freiburg

... by Airplane: Freiburg is located in the middle of a dense network of international airports. The nearest international airport, EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg, is only 40 minutes away from Freiburg. Direct connection to Freiburg is provided by the Flixbus.

Frankfurt Airport, one of Europe's largest hubs is only a two hour train ride or car drive away. Trains leave from the airport's long distance train station  to Freiburg at least once every hour.

... by Car: Over the motorway A-5 Frankfurt-Karlsruhe-Basel; exit "Freiburg Mitte".  Over the motorway A-5 Frankfurt-Karlsruhe-Basel; exit "Freiburg Mitte". Follow B31 until the exit  “Stühlinger”. Turn left. Follow the street "Escholzstraße" and the signs "Universitätsklinikum Freiburg".

... by Train: Freiburg is located on the ICE/Intercity route Frankfurt-Karlsruhe-Freiburg-Basel. Twice an hour, trains from allover Germany or from Switzerland (Zurich/Basel) stop at Freiburg's main train station. From here, you can reach the Medical Center - University Freiburg with Freiburg's public transport (tram).

Disclosure of Sponsorships

Parse Biosciences - 4.100€*
3Brain AG - 4.100€*
10x Genomics B.V - 2.100€*
Multi Channel Systems MCS GmbH - 1.550€*

* for a 4 sqm booth + advertising purposes
 

Organizing and Scientific Committee

Vidhya M. Ravi
(Medical Center University of Freiburg, FRIAS Junior Fellow)

Vidhya.ravi@uniklinik-freiburg.de

Katrin Kierdorf (Medical Center University of Freiburg)
Kevin Joseph (Medical Center University of Freiburg)
Paolo d’ Errico (University of Freiburg)

Congress Organizer

Medical Center University of Freiburg
Department of Communication - Event Management

Elke Bührer
Breisacher Str. 153
79110 Freiburg
veranstaltung@uniklinik-freiburg.de

+49 761 270-19210