Below is a more detailed description of the Plenary Speakers' topics that will be presented at ASN 2024:

Building the Nervous System

Michael Greenberg PhD, Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor of Neurobiology (Harvard Medical School)

Research in the Greenberg laboratory focuses on the mechanisms by which experience-driven neuronal activity regulates gene expression that promotes the maturation and refinement of neural circuits. A number of human brain developmental disorders, including autism, have now been linked to abnormalities in these brain pathways. https://greenberg.hms.harvard.edu

Metabolism and Cell & Molecular Neurobiology

Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz PhD, 4D Cellular Physiology Senior Group Leader (Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research)

Lab studies how the different cells comprising an organ operate individually and interdependently to allow an organ to develop, remodel, heal and compute. In addressing this challenge, lab focuses on the dynamic organization of subcellular organelles and their trafficking pathways in driving the metabolic and physical states of cells and their interrelationships.  Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz’s research uses live cell imaging approaches to analyze the spatio-temporal behavior and dynamic interactions of molecules in cells. https://www.janelia.org/lab/lippincott-schwartz-lab

Neurodegeneration and Neurodevelopmental Disease

Bruce Lamb PhD, Executive Director of Paul and Carole Stark Neurosciences Research Institute (Indiana University School of Medicine)

Lab studies microglia and neuronal-microglial communication in the development and progression of Alzheimer’s pathologies; traumatic brain injury as an environmental modifier for the development of Alzheimer’s pathologies. https://medicine.iu.edu/faculty/23627/lamb-bruce

Glial Cell Biology

Anna Victoria Molofsky, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry (University of California san Francisco Medical School)

Molofsky’s lab studies interactions between multiple cell types within the brain, including neurons, astrocytes, and microglia, and in particular, to define how innate immune signals shape healthy brain development, plasticity, and aging, both within the brain and in communication with peripheral immunity. Cellular and molecular understanding of brain-immune communication that can inform new immune-based therapies for psychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative illnesses. https://www.annamolofskylab.org