What’s coming up at SfN 2024?
This year’s Society for Neuroscience (SfN) annual meeting, Neuroscience 2024, is taking place at McCormick Place in Chicago (IL, USA) from 5–9 October 2024. The meeting brings together neuroscientists from across the world to discover new ideas and share the latest discoveries and advances in the field. There’s a lot to do at the conference, so what should you look out for?
Dialogues between neuroscience and society — Susan Magsamen
Saturday 5 October at 10am–12pm, MCP Hall B
This lecture from Susan Magsamen (Johns Hopkins University, MD, USA) explores how the arts and aesthetic experiences measurably change the brain and body, and how to translate this knowledge into practices that advance health, well-being, learning and community development. Part of the History, Education and Society theme, this lecture will help you look at both science and art from a different angle.
Advancing organoids: synergizing tissue engineering and neurotechnology development
Sunday 6 October 2–4:30pm, MCP Room S100BC
Organoids hold great promise as models that can provide insights into the development of the human nervous system and the emergence and progression of nervous system disorders. Chaired by Duygu Kuzum (University of California, San Diego, CA, USA), this symposium will highlight advances in microphysiological systems, novel technologies to interface organoids and potential applications of organoid engraftment in model organisms.
Presidential Special Lecture: Mapping the brain: from cells and circuits to function
Sunday 6 October 5:15–6:30pm, MCP Hall B
In this Presidential Special Lecture, Rui Costa will discuss the Allen Institute’s (WA, USA) efforts to map diverse cell types and circuits in the mammalian brain. They’ve used a variety of approaches, including single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, morphological and physiological analyses and advanced light and electron microscopy, spanning different development stages, species and health states.
Large-scale mechanistic models of brain circuits with biophysically and morphologically detailed neurons
Monday 7 October 9:30am–12pm, MCP Room S406B
Understanding the brain requires studying its multiscale interactions, from molecules to cells to circuits and networks. Along with these experiments come vast experimental datasets across scales and modalities, and integrating and interpreting this data remains a challenge. This minisymposium, chaired by Salvador Dura-Bernal (SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, NY, USA), will highlight recent significant advances in large-scale mechanistic modeling of brain circuits and how they offer an unparalleled approach to integrate data and provide insights into brain function and disease.
Beyond birth control: the neuroscience of hormonal contraceptives
Monday 7 October 2–4:30pm, MCP Room S102
Hormonal contraceptives (HCs) are one of the most widely used classes of drugs, used by 300 million women worldwide. Despite this, and the first HC being approved in 1960, researchers have only recently begun to study the neurobiological and behavioral impacts of HCs. This symposium, chaired by Benedetta Leuner (Ohio State University, OH, USA) will focus on preclinical rodent studies and cutting-edge neuroscience to identify cellular and molecular mechanisms by which HCs influence neural processes, including cognition, motivation, metabolism, mood, stroke and behavior.
Presidential Special Lecture: Unveiling the nexus of innate immunity and Alzheimer’s disease: insights into pathogenesis and therapeutic prospects
Monday 7 October 5:15–6:30pm, MCP Hall B
This Presidential Special Lecture, given by Nancy Ip (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, China), aims to unravel the underpinnings of neurodegeneration and Alzheimer’s pathogenesis, exploring the intricate interplay between genetic predisposition, environmental influences such as aging, and immune function.
Meet-the-Expert: Susan Amara – A different take on uptake: an unexpected journey in flux
Tuesday 8 October 1–2pm, MCP Room S104
Neurotransmitter transport systems were first identified in the 1960s, and since then, new technologies have illuminated the unexpected functions of these carriers and the mechanisms of action for therapeutic drugs that target their activities. This lecture by Susan Amara from the National Institute of Mental Health (MD, USA), will provide a perspective on the evolution of the scientific understanding of neurotransmitter transporter structure, function and multifaceted cellular regulation, with an eye toward future studies using next-generation approaches.
Discover more sessions and events at SfN here.
Meet BioTechniques!
You can find us at booth #349 in the exhibition hall. Come and chat with us about BioTechniques, your work or how we could collaborate. We’ll also have a spin-the-wheel game with lots of freebies, including totes and British chocolate, so stop by for a little pick-me-up!
