​Session 1: Cortical Evolution

Chair: Zoltán Molnár (Oxford)

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Speakers:

• Debra Silver (Durham) – The choreography of brain development: From RNA to evolution

• Pierre Vanderhaeghen (Leuven) – Mechanisms linking developmental timing and human brain evolution

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Short Talks:

• Chiaki Ohtaka-Maruyama – Subplate Dynamics: Sculpting the Neocortex Across Evolution

• Irene Antony – Clonal Somatic Cancer Driver Mutations Are Enriched in Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Brains

• Jinoh Lee – Distinct Modes of Prox1 Activity Controls Cortical Interneuron Identity

 

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Session 2: Specification and Early Development

Chair: Shubha Tole (Mumbai)

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Speakers:

• Shubha Tole (Mumbai) – Control of cell fate and morphology in the developing neocortex and hippocampus

• Sten Linnarsson (Stockholm) – Cell atlas of the developing human meninges reveals a dura origin of meningioma

• Beth Stevens (Boston) – Adolescent Development & Vulnerability: Convergent cellular and circuit maturation across species

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Short Talks:

• Jonathan W.C. Lim – Nuclear factor one transcription factors regulate radial glia differentiation during early cortical development

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Session 3: Disease and Therapeutics

Chair: Arnold Kriegstein (San Francisco)

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Speakers:

• Keri Martinowich (Baltimore) – Spatio-molecular gene expression reflects dorsal anterior cingulate cortex structure and function in the human brain

• Giorgia Quadrato (Los Angeles) – Engineering Brain Organoids for Cell Type-Specific Neurodevelopmental Disease Modeling

• Marina Bershteyn (San Francisco) – Human GABAergic Interneuron Cell Therapy for Drug-Resistant Epilepsy

• Stefano Gustincich (Genova) – Long interspersed nuclear element (LINE) transcripts function as regulatory long non-coding RNAs

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Short Talks:

• Angeliki Louvi – Dysregulation of mTOR signaling is a converging mechanism in lissencephaly spectrum disorders

• Anna Pagliaro – Human brain organoids reveal roles of ECM in directing brain expansion and regional identity

• Soraya Scuderi – Specification of multiple human brain lineages by transient exposure to orthogonal gradients of WNT and SHH in iPSC-derived organoids

• Mona Barkat – Integration of 3D-Neuronal Tissue into Traumatic Brain Injury Model

• Valerio Conti – Dissecting pathophysiological anomalies underlying the developmental and epileptic encephalopathy caused by pathogenic variants in the stretch-activated TMEM63B channel

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Session 4: Circuit Development

Chair: Carina Hanashima (Tokyo)

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Speakers:

• Giulia Quattrocolo (Trondheim) – Cajal-Retzius cells in the postnatal hippocampus

• Jens Hjerling-Leffler (Stockholm) – Absence of molecular convergence among rare-variant CNV risk models for schizophrenia during adolescent brain development

• Sergiu Pasca (Stanford) – Constructing and deconstructing the human nervous system to study development and disease

• Chris Walsh (Boston) – Somatic mutations in human cerebral cortical development

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Short Talks:

• Fernando Messore – A Subpopulation of layer 6 neurons drives cortical excitability and regulates anxiety behaviour

• Patrick Azzam – Abnormal persistence of thalamic-eminence derived Cajal-Retzius cells selectively alters electrophysiological properties of entorhinal pyramidal neurons

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Session 5: Cortical Lineages

Chair: Aparna Bhaduri (Los Angeles)

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Speakers:

• Tom Nowakowski (San Francisco) – Lineage and Circuit Mapping of Human Cortical Development

• Aparna Bhaduri (Los Angeles) – Cortical Cell Fate Regulation: The Role of Extrinsic Inputs

• Carina Hanashima (Tokyo) – Molecular and Evolutionary Mechanisms of Sensory Input Neuron Specification in the Developing Brain

• Barbara Treutlein (Zurich) – Single cell technologies to understand human brain development

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Short Talks:

• Daniel Dan Liu – Dissecting Stem Cell Hierarchies in Human Brain Development

• Alexandre Jourdon – Gene regulatory networks driving brain lineages formation in human organoids across individuals

• Chen-Yu Wang – Investigating the role of transcription factor TCF4 in cortical interneuron development

• Sergi Roig-Puiggros – Transcriptional dynamics of emerging cortical areas

• Teresa Guillamón-Vivancos – Early molecular and activity-driven interactions shape sensory specificity in the developing cortex

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Session 6: Modeling Cortical Development and Disease

Chair: Flora Vaccarino (New Haven)

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Speakers:

• Flora Vaccarino (New Haven) – Human Somatic Mosaicism and variation between iPSC lines

• Orly Reiner (Rehovot) – When the Brain Gets Too Stiff: ECM and Nuclear Breakdown in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

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Short Talks:

• Ley Nadine Lacbawan – Transcriptomic Effects of Mood Stabilizing Drugs on the Gene Regulatory Network in Cell Villages of Human iPSC derived Cortical Neurons

• Riva Martina – Perinatal Cerebellar Activity Impacts Neocortical Development

• Alessandra Pierani – Bidirectional interaction between transcription and adhesion in cortical development

• Alessandro Vitriolo – Convergent dysregulations in neurodevelopmental disorders highlight a conserved gene regulatory network in early corticogenesis

• Zoltan Meszar – Ultrasound Stimulation Modulates Early Cortical and Hippocampal Development, Enhancing Transient Memory Performance

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