Neuroscience 2019 Celebrates SfN’s 50th Anniversary

This fall, scientists and researchers from around the world will gather at the Neuroscience 2019 conference to hear lectures such as “Wavefront Engineering: Illuminating the Neural Landscape,” from Valentina Emiliani of the Vision Institute in Paris. In her Presidential Special Lecture, Emiliani will discuss research related to a revolution in optogenetics: the shaping of wavefronts to guide light through tissues with millisecond precision and single-cell resolution, which is bringing the field into a new phase called “circuit optogenetics.”

Neuroscience 2019 will take place at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago Oct. 19-23.

Optical technology is one subject of the world’s largest scientific meeting, Neuroscience 2019, which this year marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in 1969. The event will include a variety of workshops, networking, and socializing among peers.

To be held October 19-23 at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, the conference will commemorate advancements in global neuroscience research and also SfN’s mission of advancing and advocating for scientific exchange, supporting diversity and career training, and educating the public.

Nearly 30,000 members of the scientific community will gather for the event and over 500 exhibitors will attend. Visitors will learn about cutting-edge technologies, covering topic areas such as circuit development, neurodegenerative disorders, the first FDA-approved drug for spinal muscular atrophy, and more. Attendees will learn from top researchers in the field, collaborate with other professionals, and even earn continuing medical education (CME) credits at CME-designated lectures and symposia during the conference.

To mark the 50th anniversary, Susana Martinez-Conde will chair a storytelling session titled “The Storytelling Brain: How Neuroscience Stories Help Bridge the Gap Between Research and Society.”

Neuroscience 2019 will host more than 50 symposia and minisymposia. Panel session topics include adult hippocampal neurogenesis, vision restoration, sensory circuits, and artificial intelligence and how it can affect neuroscience.

The conference will host four Presidential Special lectures, five featured Lectures, and 15 special lectures by innovative neuroscientists and leading researchers in the field.

In addition to Emiliani’s talk, there will be three other Presidential Special Lectures:

• “From Base Pairs to Bedside: Anti-sense Modulators of RNA Splicing to Treat Neurological Diseases,” by Adrian R. Krainer of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

• “Understanding Cortical Development and Disease: From Embryos to Brain Organoids,” by Paola Arlotta of Harvard University.

• “The Cell Biology of the Synapse and Behavior,” by Daniel A. Colón-Ramos of Yale University School of Medicine.

Other featured lectures will cover topics such as dialogue between neuroscience and society, the circadian clock, and neuroethics. The featured History of Neuroscience lecture presented by Reinhard Jahn of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, titled “Exocytosis of Synaptic Vesicles: From Quantal Release to Molecular Machines,” will give a history of synaptic vesicles and how research has advanced since their discovery in the 1950s.

Nearly 30,000 members of the scientific community and over 500 exhibitors will gather for Neuroscience 2019. Courtesy of Joe Shymanski/Society for Neuroscience.

Lecture topics are categorized into nine main themes: development; neural excitability, synapses, and glia; neurodegenerative disorders and injury; sensory systems; motor systems; integrative physiology and behavior; motivation and emotion; cognition; and techniques. Lectures will include “Evolution and Dissolution of Memories Over Time” by Eleanor A. Maguire of University College London, and “Neural Mechanisms of Short-Term Memory and Motor Planning” by Karel Svoboda of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Janelia Research Campus.

Neuroscience 2019 will host three roundtable panel discussions to encourage debate between clinician-scientists on topics such as exoskeletons and robotics for neurorehabilitation, gene therapy, and the mechanisms of drug addiction.

Neuroscience 2019 will host over 50 symposia and minisymposia on a wide range of topics. Courtesy of Joe Shymanski/Society for Neuroscience.

For those who wish to learn from experts before the official start of the meeting, the SfN Pre-Conference Sessions will feature short courses and “Meet the Experts” sessions that will discuss emerging topics and techniques in scientific research.

Also at Neuroscience 2019: poster sessions; SfN-sponsored socials such as the International Brain Bee Social, the Neuroethics Social, and the Music Social; dozens of satellite events; professional development events such as the Graduate School Fair and NeuroJobs Career Center; and workshops including “How to Thrive as a Woman in Neuroscience” and “Bringing Genetic Diversity to Model Organism Research.”

The extensive exhibition will host over 500 booths and companies showcasing the latest products and relevant, trailblazing technologies. Some of the many companies planning to attend include Thermo Fisher Scientific, BioTek Instruments, Andor Technology, MKS Instruments, and Thorlabs.