11th UK & Ireland Early Career Blood-Brain Barrier Symposium

12th of November 2021

 

Organised by Early Career Researchers (ECRs) at the School of Science and Technology at Nottingham Trent University – Nottingham

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Purpose: This symposium provides an opportunity for ECRs to present their research on the barriers of the CNS in the form of talks or poster presentations, in the hopes of fostering connections between BBB researchers.

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Programme:  12th of November 2021

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Session 1: Introduction and Presentations           

9.00 – 9.10 am                  Welcome and Introduction Dr Zahraa Al-Ahmady and Dr Richard Hulse (Nottingham Trent University)

9.10 – 10:30 am                                Session 1 (Chair Lydia Hardowar & Satinderdeep Kaur):

9:15 – 9:30 am                  Sophie Quick (University of Edinburgh), An intrinsic endothelial dysfunction causes cerebral small vessel disease.

9:30 – 9:45 am                  Fiona McLean (University of Dundee), The effect of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) on brain microvessel blood flow function.

9:45– 10:00 am                Daniela Garcia (University of Edinburgh), White matter lesions in small vessel disease: a matter of impaired endothelial-pericyte- crosstalk.

10:00 – 10:15 am             Diana Matias (University College London), Polymersomes with tunable avidity to LRP1 in healthy and glioma model.

10:15 – 10:30 am             Eleonora Mameli (University of Edinburgh), Defective autophagy impairs endothelial cells’ function and blood-brain barrier integrity.

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10.30 – 11.00 am             Coffee break

11:00 – 11:30 am             Poster Session 1                

 

11:30 – 12:30 pm             Session 2                             

(Chair Richard Hulse)

11:30 – 12:10 pm            Keynote Speaker Dr Pieter Gaillard (2-bbb.com, Netherlands), “The ups and Downs of an Early BBB in Business Career”

12:10 – 12:30 pm             Career plan discussion

 

12:30 – 1:30 pm                Lunch break

 

1:30 – 3:00 pm                  Session 3                             

(Chair Miss Jessica Bates & Zahraa Al-Ahmady):

1:30 – 2:00 pm                 Industrial Workshop, Christoph Koenig (NanoString.Com), Spatially resolved expression analysis in brain research employing the Nanostring GeoMx platform.

2:00 – 2:15 pm                 Lydia Hardowar (Nottingham Trent University), Activated spinal cord pericytes facilitate neuropathic pain development.

2:15 – 2:30 pm                 Wedad Mawkili (University of Liverpool), Genome wide CRISPR/Cas9 knockout library screening approach to identify the clozapine transporter.

2:30 – 2:45 pm                 Ashik Babu (St Georges University), Herpes simplex encephalitis in vitro models and cytokine signatures associated with neuro-inflammation preliminary data.

2:45 – 3:00 pm                 Erin Fahey (Trinity College Dublin), A novel function for IL-36 cytokines enhancing endothelial cell barrier integrity.

 

3:00 – 3:30 pm                  Coffee break

3:30 – 4:00 pm                  Poster Session 2                

 

4:00-5:10 pm                     Session 4                             

(Chair David Dickens and Nacho Romero)

4:00 – 4:50 pm                 Keynote speaker Professor Berislav V Zlokovic (Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, University of Southern California) “Blood-brain barrier link to neurodegeneration, cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease”.

4:50 – 5:10 pm                  Closing remarks and workshop discussion: How do want to see the meeting in the future?

5:10 – 6:00 pm                 Session 5 Networking Session