Satellite symposium 1: Neural stem cells in development and disease modeling

Date: May 22, 2019, full day

Location: Sheraton Centre Toronto (CAN meeting HQ)

Organisers:

Armen Saghatelyan (CERVO Brain Research Center)

David Kaplan (Hospital for Sick Children)

Freda Miller (Hospital for Sick Children)

Karun Singh (McMaster University)

Brief description of event:

Neural stem cells (NSCs) generate neurons and glia during brain development and can be used to model and understand neurodevelopmental disorders. The objective of this satellite event is to bring together Canadian experts and trainees working in the fields of NSC and neurodevelopmental disorders to exchange ideas and initiate collaborative projects. This satellite is an outgrowth of agreed-upon next steps from the successful NSC satellite meeting at last year’s CAN meeting, including the use of model organisms to study NSC function (session 1), adoption of the latest cutting-edge techniques and approaches to study NSC biology including single cell transcriptomics (session 2) and the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells to understand and model human neurodevelopmental disorders (session 3). We expect that this meeting will strengthen the Canadian stem cell community by connecting researchers in the model organism, neurodevelopment and neurodevelopmental disorder fields who do not regularly interact.

Speakers

1. Bret Pearson (SickKids)
2. Vince Tropepe (U. Toronto)
3. Teddy Erclik (U. Toronto)
4. Deborah Kurrasch (U. Calgary)
5. Jeff Biernaskie (U. Calgary)
6. Ruth Slack (U. Ottawa)
7. Guang Yang (U. Calgary)
8. Diane Lagace (U. Ottawa)
9. Scott Yuzwa (U. Toronto)
10. Karun Singh (McMaster)
11. Julien Muffat (SickKids)
12. Carl Ernst (Douglas)
13. James Ellis (SickKids)

Program – NSCs Satellite

May 22

• 8h30: arrival and registration
• 9h00 opening remarks

20min talks + 5 min questions

Session 1: Stem cells in non-mammalian organisms (chair David Kaplan)

• 9h05 Bret Pearson (SickKids)
  Deconstructing neural regeneration:  flatworming our way forward
• 9h30 Vince Tropepe (U. Toronto)
  Experience dependent neurogenesis and brain growth
• 9h55 Teddy Erclik (U. Toronto)
  Spatial and temporal patterning of neuroblasts in the developing fruit fly brain
• 10h20 Deborah Kurrasch (U. Calgary)
  Microglia-radial glia interactions in the embryonic hypothalamus

10h45 coffee break

Session 2: Mammalian neurogenesis (chair Armen Saghatelyan)

• 11h00 Ruth Slack (U. Ottawa)
  Mitochondria as central regulators of neural stem cell fate and function
• 11h25 Jeff Biernaskie (U. Calgary)
  A tale of two cousins: Ependymal cells, quiescent neural stem cells and their functional divergence
• 11h50 Diane Lagace (U. Ottawa)
  What can adult-generated cells in the brain do during stroke recovery?
• 12h15 short-talk Guang Yang (U. Calgary)
  Shuttling of RNA-binding proteins and neural stem cell fate decision
• 12h30 short-talk Scott Yuzwa (U. Toronto)
  Developmental emergence of adult neural stem cells: Unravelling the influence of the niche

12h45 lunch (included with registration; Quinn’s Steakhouse, 96 Richmond St W)

Session 3: Stem cells to model brain diseases (chair Karun Singh)

• 14h15 Karun Singh (McMaster)
  Using human iPSC models and proteomics to understand Autism risk genes
• 14h40 Julien Muffat (SickKids)
  Human models of microglial development shed light on viral teratogenicity and neurodegenerative processes
• 15h05 James Ellis (SickKids)
  NPC based models of human neurodevelopmental disorders and regulated mRNA translation 
• 15h30 short-talk Carl Ernst (Douglas)
  Histone dynamics in EHMT1-deficiency syndrome

15h45 closing remarks

17h00 CAN opening

Satellite sponsors