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SCIENTIFIC SEMINARS
From an evolutionary perspective, the answer to the question “to eat or not to eat” may seem straightforward. The matter becomes more complicated with the development of modern civilizations. Why is that? It turns out that the solution to this puzzle lies in the brain.
At the Scientific Picnic on September 9th, 2023, our project coordinator Dr. Witold Konopka, gave interesting lecture titled “To Eat or Not to Eat: Brain vs. Body” about fascinating interplay between the brain and the body’s decision-making processes.
We cordially invite you to watch video stream of the lecture.
Note: lecture is in Polish.
SHORT TREM VISITS
ICM partnership visit Tech Transfer & Open Science
A productive session on Tech Transfer & Open Science took place at the ICM Paris Brain Institute on n November 21-22 2023.
Bertrand Dupont, Technology Audit and Pre-incubation Advisor within the SAME-NeuroID project, along with Agnieszka Sok-Grochowska, Senior Technology Transfer Specialist, had the opportunity to meet and discuss with ICM professionals. The knowledge gained from ICM’s expertise in tech transfer is incredibly valuable. Bertrand provided updates on our SAME-NeuroID project, fostering collaboration and participated in the Neuro Openscience Workshop, tackling critical topics like the declining of scientific publication model, alternatives to the peer review process, openscience and research assessment methods.
Thank you to the ICM team for these enriching sessions! A special thanks to Cristina Lemos for orchestrating this event.
SCIENTIFIC SEMINARS
Young Investigators Presentation of Brain to Market Summer School 2023
On October 19th, in the Auditorium of building A, our Young Investigators presented their contributions to the Brain to Market Summer School 2023. The presentation included three main parts:
1. Introduction of the Brain to Market Program.
2. Insight into This Year’s Program.
3. Projects and the Winning Idea.
The presenters, representing research groups, were as follows:
Jakub Chwastek, Müzeyyen Uğur, and Olga Pietrzyk from the Neuroplasticity and Metabolism Research Group.
Ewa Mrówczyńska and Karolina Cierluk from the Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration Research Group.
Congratulations to all participants for their outstanding work!
SCIENTIFIC SEMINARS
From an evolutionary perspective, the answer to the question “to eat or not to eat” may seem straightforward. The matter becomes more complicated with the development of modern civilizations. Why is that? It turns out that the solution to this puzzle lies in the brain.
At the Scientific Picnic on September 9th, 2023, our project coordinator Dr. Witold Konopka, gave interesting lecture titled “To Eat or Not to Eat: Brain vs. Body” about fascinating interplay between the brain and the body’s decision-making processes.
The picnic offered a wonderful opportunity to get to know PORT, engage with science, and explore laboratories. Attendees had a chance to interact with researchers and witness real scientific experiments in action, making it an enriching and educational experience. It was a day of discovery and learning for all who participated.
We will soon provide the link to the lecture recordings. Stay tuned!
CONFERENCE
On
September 4 – 6, 2023, we hosted nearly 140 scientists from around the world
who, at the invitation of the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Center of
Łukasiewicz – PORT, took part in conference: PORT for Health: Neuroscience 2023.
The PORT
for Health: Neuroscience 2023 conference has become a permanent fixture in the
calendar of events organized by Łukasiewicz – PORT. Its aim was again to update
knowledge about the causes of neurological diseases. The program included five
thematic sessions: cellular models in neurodegeneration, cellular models in
neuropsychiatry, neurometabolic disorders, animal models in neuropsychiatry,
computational models in neuropsychiatry. During each session, the results of
their research were presented by respected scientists from Europe, China and
the United States, including: Andrew Holmes (Laboratory of Behavioral and
Genomic Neuroscience, NIAAA, Rockville), Dominik Paquet (Laboratory of
Neurobiology, Univ. Hospital, LMU & Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology),
and Johannes Passecker (Center for Chemistry and Biomedicine Medical University
of Innsbruck). The scientific committee on the Łukasiewicz-PORT side included:
Agnieszka Krzyżosiak, PhD – leader of the Mechanisms of Neurodegeneration Research Group,
Witold
Konopka, PhD – leader of the Neuroplasticity and Metabolism Research Group
Tomasz
Prószyński, PhD – leader of the Synaptogenesis Research Group.
Michał
Ślęzak, PhD – leader of the Biology of Astrocytes Research Group.
What distinguishes this conference from other scientific events?
– What
distinguishes the PORT for Health: Neuroscience 2023 conference from other
events is its formula – consistent with the approach to science characteristic
of the entire Łukasiewicz – PORT Institute. In our research unit, we do not
limit ourselves to research and their publications, but we immediately look for
opportunities for implementation in industry – explains Dr. Michał Malewicz,
director of the Life Sciences and Biotechnology Center Łukasiewicz – PORT. – We
invite the best scientists to give lectures, and the conference is attended by
representatives of industry, as well as doctors, clinicians and our partners
from hospital centers. Thanks to this, our event becomes a platform for
establishing long-term cooperation at the intersection of science and business
– adds Dr. Michał Malewicz.
The conferences were also accompanied by matchmaking sessions organized by Industry Contact Point for Medical Technologies and Health. These meetings were an opportunity to exchange ideas and look for partners for international research projects.
The meeting was part of the SAME-NeuroID project funded by the Horizon Europe program.
SCIENTIFIC SEMINARS
Stress resilience is an ability of neuronal networks to maintain their function despite the stress exposure. In Prof. Jakub Włodarczyk’s study, he and his team investigated whether stress resilience is an actively developed dynamic process in adult mice. In order to assess the resilient and anhedonic behavioral phenotypes developed after induction of the chronic unpredictable stress, scientists quantitatively characterized the structural and functional plasticity of excitatory synapses in the hippocampus using a combination of proteomic, electrophysiological, and imaging methods.
On 15th June 2023, as part of the SAME-NeuroID project, we hosted prof. Jakub Włodarczyk, Professor at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland, head of the Laboratory of Cell Biophysics, who gave a lecture entitled “The molecular fingerprint of stress resilience”.
Jakub Włodarczyk heads the Laboratory of Cell Biophysics. The main field of his interest is aberrant synaptic plasticity underlying stress related disorders and stress resilience. He studies structural and functional synaptic modifications regulated by posttranslational modifications. He develops and employs novel imaging based techniques and mass spectrometry methods to assess the reorganization of activity patterns accompanied by local volumetric and molecular changes at the synapses.
The meeting was part of the SAME-NeuroID project funded by the Horizon Europe program.
SCIENTIFIC SEMINARS
On Friday, 31st March 2023, as part of the SAME-NeuroID project and PORT Seminar Series, we hosted Ali Jawaid, Ph.D. who currently heads the Laboratory for Translational Research in Neuropsychiatric Disorders (TREND lab) at the BRAINCITY: Center of Excellence for Neural Plasticity and Brain Disorders, Warsaw, Poland. TREND lab is focused on dissecting the liaison between non-coding RNAs and metabolic factors in the long-term sequelae of early life trauma; and investigate how metabolism can be manipulated to counter its neuropsychiatric manifestations across generations.
Ali Jawaid’s lecture was titled “The Interplay between Metabolism and Epigenetics in Risk and Transmission of Neuropsychiatric Disorders”. The meeting was part of the SAME-NeuroID project funded by the Horizon Europe program.
For Young Investigators there was post-lecture meeting scheduled as Q&A session. During the session they were able to inquire our guest Ali Jawaid, Ph.D. about the tips how to accelerate a research career and how to avoid traps and bottlenecks.
SHORT TREM VISITS
PORT – ICM partnership visit
Directors of the PORT management team and leaders of the SAME-NeuroID project met with the management board of the Paris Brain Institute (ICM) in Paris (March 27 – 29, 2023). PORT representatives had the opportunity to see the huge scale of the ICM Institute’s functioning, the systems in place, and the operation of research groups and core facilities. In addition, we debated how to conduct technology transfer, support “high risk – high gain” innovative ideas, and create the environment for collaboration with brain disease start-ups – clustered around the iPEPS BioIncubator (https://ipeps.institutducerveau-icm.org/). In addition, we were introduced to the Living Lab initiative, CARE LAB, in which new technologies are developed in close collaboration with patients and members of the health care system (https://institutducerveau-icm.org/en/care-lab-2/). During lively discussions, a formula for organizing a Hackathon (one of the activities of the SAME-NeuroID project) was worked out. Detailed directions for further cooperation between the two institutions were also specified.
Conference
Counting down days to 𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵: 𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 at #ŁukasiewiczPORT 4-6.09.2023!
The conference will be a unique opportunity to meet outstanding scientists in the field of neuroscience, as well as to listen to over 20 lectures presenting the latest research results and achievements in the field of neuropsychiatry, neurodegeneration, and neurometabolic disorders.
Here’s what we have prepared for you:
✅ 3 plenary lectures:
✔ Dominik Paquet (Institute for Stroke and Dementia Research (ISD), University Hospital, LMU Munich, Munich, Germany; Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy), Munich, Germany),
✔ Andrew Holmes (Laboratory of Behavioral and Genomic Neuroscience, NIAAA, Rockville),
✔ Johannes Passecker (Center for Chemistry and Biomedicine, Medical University of Innsbruck)
✅ 6 thematic sessions dedicated to the latest research results and achievements in the field of cellular, animal models, and computational neuropsychiatry.
✅ Matchmaking sessions that work the opportunity to establish cooperation and contacts between conference participants to exchange ideas, share experiences, and create new projects.
✅ Presentations of Young Researchers, i.e., a platform for young scientists to share their ideas and research results.
For more information, go to ▶PORT for Health: Neuroscience
Registration is in progress! We invite you to participate online!
#ŁukasiewiczPORT #PORTforHealth #Neuroscience2023
#ScientificConferences #LifeScience #neuroscience #neuropsychiatry #BrainDisorders
modern solutions
Neuropsychiatric diseases affect nearly one third of the European adult population. Existing therapies are largely suboptimal as we lack understanding of disease mechanisms, clearly underscoring the need for novel solutions. The scope of the EU-funded SAME-NeuroID is to support the research capacity of the Life Science and Biotechnology Centre (LS&BC) of the Łukasiewicz-PORT institute in Wrocław in Poland.
The project constitutes a partnership with neuroscience centres in France (Paris Brain Institute), Germany (Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry), and the Netherlands (Erasmus University Medical Center), which will share knowledge and technology and undertake staff training. Collectively, these activities will render Łukasiewicz-PORT a neuroscience hub of excellence, increasing its future research prospects and international visibility.
SCIENTIFIC SEMINARS
On 7th October we hosted DR. ANNE BERTOLOTTI who delivered first of the twelve SCIENTIFIC SEMINARS scheduled. Dr. Anne Bertolotti from Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB) in Cambridge UK investigates the protein quality control systems in the aim to identify strategies preventing accumulation of aggregation-prone misfolded proteins in the cell.
At Łukasiewicz – PORT, she gave a lecture on “Boosting protein quality control: A strategy against neurodegenerative diseases.” The meeting took place as part of the SAME-NeuroID project Standardized Approaches to Modelling and Examination of Neuropsychiatric Disorders financed by the Horizon Europe program.
After the Seminar Ann met with the group of young investigators to answer all difficult questions related to the bottlenecks in the young researchers’ career.
With a relentless pursuit of knowledge, we unravel the complexities of the mind, unraveling the mysteries that hinder mental well-being. Join us as we pave the way for breakthroughs in neuroscience and offer hope for a brighter future
With unwavering determination, we delve into the depths of the human mind, pioneering breakthroughs that inspire a brighter future for mental well-being and transform lives.
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