Neuroscience 2019: Biological Basis of Behavior

Our 7^th Annual Neuroscience Virtual Event was held on March 13-14 and was a huge success. Joshua Gordon, MD, PhD, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health, opened the event with his keynote address detailing some of the challenges and opportunities in mental health research. He provided an update for the NIH’s Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, which is part of the Brain 2025 report. In addition, we featured some of the NIH Brain awardees who presented updates and current research findings in their areas of study. The BRAIN Initiative’s three overarching components are training new scientists and dissemination of information, data coordination, and informatics (sharing of all data from grants), and new neuroethical issues that arise from advancing technologies. In its first five years, the goal of the BRAIN Initiative is to emphasize technology development and the next five years of discovery-driven science. Funding by Congress has been committed through 2026 with $430 million targeted at cell types and circuits, developing novel methods in imaging modulation, and neural recording/modulation to data informatics. Panel Discussion: BRAIN Initiative Awardees On the first day, March 13, three speakers, who are awardees of the research in the human’s division of BRAIN Initiative, took part in a panel discussion where attendees were able to participate in a question and answer session. Elizabeth Buffalo, PhD is the Professor of Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Washington, and she also serves as the Chief of the Neuroscience Division of the Washington National Primate Research Center. Dr. Buffalo has advanced our understanding of the neural mechanisms of memory in primate brains through her research in systems and cognitive neuroscience. Ueli Rutishauser, PhD holds several positions including an Associate Professor and Board of Governors Chair in Neurosciences in the Department of Neurosurgery with appointments in the Departments of Neurology, Biomedical Sciences, and the Center for Neural Science and Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. In addition, Dr. Rutishauser is a visiting faculty member at the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. His work includes the textbook "Single neuron studies of the human brain" by MIT press in which he was a co-editor,  and he has had his research published in numerous peer-reviewed and scholarly journals. Dr. Rutishauser was also one of the primary organizers of the Human Single Neuron meeting. Robert Gaunt, PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh. His research is focused on biomedical engineering, and he received his post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Douglas Weber at the University of Pittsburgh.  “This is an interesting event!” –La Jolla Alcohol Research, Inc.  Exciting highlights from the webinar series: Michael Benrós, MD, PhD is a clinician and research leader at the Mental Health Centre Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital. His research focuses on the role of infection and inflammation in the etiology of severe mental disorders including depression and schizophrenia. He has found that infections, autoimmune diseases, and head trauma increase the risk of mental disorders and that there are increased levels of peripheral inflammation, blood-brain barrier permeability, and CSF cytokine levels. It’s possible that immunosuppressive agents may be a potential treatment in depression and psychosis, but there need to be more RCTs of immune-related biomarkers before this can be definitively determined. György Buzsáki, PhD is the Biggs Professor of Neuroscience at New York University and is among the top 1% most-cited neuroscientists. He is on the editorial boards of several neuroscience scholarly journals including Science and Neuron. Dr. Buzsáki was also a co-recipient of the 2011 Brain Prize. In the first session, Dr. Buzsáki describes his work in high-resolution recording and non-invasive perturbation tools for the human brain and its impact on strategies in treating patients with both psychiatric and neurological diseases. John Donoghue, PhD is the Founding Director of the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering. He is one of the most distinguished researchers in neuroengineering and is also regarded as one of the founding fathers of the merger between neuroscience and cybernetics. Dr. Donoghue has made significant contributions to neuroengineering in his work on human-brain computer interfaces as well as brain function and plasticity. The second session on March 14 was opened by keynote speaker, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, MD, MSc, MBA, with a discussion of environmental risk mechanisms for psychiatric disorders. Dr. Meyer-Lindenberg is the Medical Director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University Medical Centre Mannheim. He is board-certified in psychiatry, psychotherapy, and neurology. In his presentation, Dr. Meyer-Lindenberg reviews current research suggesting that there is emerging evidence that combines epidemiology, social psychology, and neuroscience in the identification of neural mechanisms of social risk factors for mental illness. Understanding the impact of resilience and social risk factors in the context of neurobiology will help develop future prevention strategies for psychiatric disorders. “Glad to participate in such a wonderful event with system neurology and brain-computer interface topics!” --Tzu Chiao Lan All of the webinars for this event are now available to watch On-Demand and will be available for the next six months. They provide excellent opportunities to learn up-to-date information on the most current research studies from the experts and to ask questions or clarification of any of the topics. Registration and attendance to all of our virtual events are free offering an environment of collaboration, networking, and professional development. Continuing education credits are available for all attendees (P.A.C.E.). “Fantastic speaker line-up very impressed with this event!” –Joseph “So many amazing presentations this year! Can’t wait to share with my colleagues.”--Mary The heart of Labroots is its uniqueness in providing premier education events and webinars that are entirely virtual. There is no need to pay for travel and accommodations; attendance is available by simply logging into the event for free and viewing the incredible presentations at your convenience. The event can also be viewed On-Demand if you miss the live dates! "Unique not having to fly anywhere." --Robert Gaunt, PhD All attendees are encouraged to respond to or tag our event posts, where we will showcase them on our post-event blog. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.